mRNA molecules form an intermediate in the transfer of sequences from DNA to ribosomes in order to guide protein production. Errors can be introduced into mRNA, producing aberrant proteins which place a strain on cellular regulatory machinery, causing increased risks of apoptosis, cancer, and decreased fitness. These errors may be introduced due to decreased transcriptional proofreading capabilities, exposure to chemicals, or mistakes in RNA editing machinery. It is important to investigate these causes of transcription errors to better understand the long-neglected area of mRNA fidelity which has such significant impacts on our cellular functions. In this paper, it was determined that addition of adenine opposite from abasic sites, not genomic uracil pairing with adenine, are a probable cause of G-to-A transcription errors. That exposure to Roundup causes increased levels of transcription errors, potentially due to oxidative stress. And finally, that off-target ADAR gene editing of transcripts occurs at high levels.

Den teknologiska utvecklingen går i full fart i dagens samhälle och detta påverkar även utvecklandet av utbildningar och dess tillvägagångssätt. Simulatorer och simulerad inlärning tar allt mer plats inom allt från medicinsk utbildning till golfsport och har länge använts inom pilotutbildning. Implementeringen av simulatorer kan i framtiden komma att ersätta stora delar av den traditionella utbildningen då simulatorerna blir allt mer effektiva. Detta är särskilt aktuellt inom farliga och mer komplicerade situationer där felsteg kan vara kritiska. Ett exempel där kritiska tillfällen kan uppstå är inom bilkörning och körsimulatorer har därför börjat bli ett allt vanligare komplement hos trafikskolor. Denna studie hade därför som mål att undersöka körförmågan och körsäkerheten hos nybörjarförare i en simulator, för att se om auditiv och haptisk feedback har någon effekt på dessa. Till studien rekryterades 12 deltagare av låg körerfarenhet, varav fem kvinnor och sju män. Studien var experimentell med inomgruppsdesign där hälften av deltagarna började köra utan feedback medan andra halvan började med feedback. Deltagarna bytte sedan betingelse. Feedback under körning visade ingen signifikant påverkan av körförmåga eller körsäkerhet. Detta kan bero på det låga antalet deltagare då de sammanlagda avvikelserna var högre vid avsaknad av feedback. Detta resultat antyder även att nya förare inte använder sig av audio-haptiska ledtrådar i lika stor utsträckning som mer erfarna förare. / Technological advancement is traveling at high speeds in today's society and this has had a big impact on education and its approaches. Simulators and simulated learning have become more prevalent in everything from medical training to golf sports and have been used for a long time in the aviation field by training pilots. The implementation of simulators could come to replace big parts of the traditional approach in the educational field because of their high rise in effectiveness. Simulators are especially topical in dangerous and more complex situations where mishaps could be critical. One example would be driving, and driving simulators seems to be on the rise in traffic education. This study had as a goal to examine driving skills and safety in novice drivers in a driving simulator to see if audio and haptic feedback had an impact. 12 participants with little to no driving experience were recruited, five women and seven men. The study was an experiment of within-group design where half of the participants started driving with feedback, while the other half started driving without feedback and then they switched condition. Feedback during driving showed no significant effects on driving skill or safety. This could be due to the low sample size because even though there was no significant effect measured, there was a bigger amount of deviations in the no feedback test group. The results suggest that novice drivers don’t use audio haptic clues as part of their driving as much as experienced drivers do.

Cyclura ricordii is an endemic iguana from Hispaniola and is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN. The main threats are predation by introduced mammals, habitat destruction and hunting. The present study focused on two nesting areas in Pedernales in the Dominican Republic. The hypothesis tested is that natal philopatry influences dispersal and nest site selection. Monitoring and sampling took place during 2012-2013. Polymorphic markers were used to evaluate whether natal philopatry limits dispersal at multiple spatial scales. Ripley’s K, revealed that nests were significantly clustered. Hierarchical AMOVA revealed that nest site aggregations did not explain a significant portion of genetic variation. However, Mantel’s tests revealed significant positive correlations between genetic and geographic distance. These results indicate that natal philopatry limits dispersal at a course spatial scale, but does not influence nest site selection at a fine spatial scale.

This thesis, comprising three publications, explores the efficacy of novel generalization of the fidelity susceptibility and their numerical application to the study of frustrated quantum phase transitions in two and one dimensions. Specifically, they will be used in exact diagonalization studies of the various limiting cases of the anisotropic next-nearest neighbour triangular lattice Heisenberg model (ANNTLHM). These generalized susceptibilities are related to the order parameter susceptibilities and spin stiffness and are believed to exhibit similar behaviour although with greater sensitivity. This makes them ideal for numerical studies on small systems. Additionally, the utility of the excited-state fidelity and twist boundary conditions will be explored. All studies are done through numerical exact diagonalization. In the limit of interchain couplings going to zero the ANNTLHM reduces to the well studied $J_1-J_2$ chain with a known, difficult to identify, BKT-type transition. In the first publication of this work the generalized fidelity susceptibilities introduced therein are shown to be able to identify this transition as well as characterize the already understood phases it straddles. The second publication of this work then seeks to apply these generalized fidelity susceptibilities, as well as the excited-state fidelity, to the study of the general phase diagram of the ANNTLHM. It is shown that the regular and excited-state fidelities are useful quantities for the mapping of novel phase diagrams and that the generalized fidelity susceptibilities can provide valuable information as to the nature of the phases within the mapped phase regions. The final paper sees the application of twisted boundary conditions to the anisotropic triangular model (next-nearest neighbour interactions are zero). It is demonstrated that these boundary conditions greatly enhance the ability to numerically explore incommensurate physics in small systems. / Thesis / Doctor of Science (PhD)

Information regarding spawning site fidelity and movement patterns of the American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) is crucial for developing effective conservation and management strategies on the correct spatial scale. To investigate the spatial ecology of American horseshoe crabs, 75 adult animals were tracked off the coast of Chatham, Cape Cod, MA from June 2010 to November 2011 using acoustic telemetry. Two groups of horseshoe crabs were tagged in spawning habitats (separated by ~2.0 km) with differing commercial harvesting pressure: one group inside Stage Harbor, where harvesting is permitted and the other within a Marine Protected Area (MPA) where harvesting is prohibited. Network analysis revealed that horseshoe crabs exhibited fidelity to spawning habitat, but not necessarily to the habitat where they were initially tagged. Fifty-nine percent of horseshoe crabs tagged inside Stage Harbor were detected in the MPA and 13% of horseshoe crabs tagged in the MPA were detected inside Stage Harbor. Although horseshoe crabs were utilizing both spawning habitats, predictive modeling revealed little temporal overlap, suggesting that horseshoe crabs from the two spawning habitats represent local populations. Isolated and local populations are more susceptible to overexploitation than are larger populations with many migrants. To protect against overharvest and extinction of isolated and local populations, the correct identification of management units (MUs) must be a priority of fisheries managers. Horseshoe crab populations around Cape Cod, Massachusetts and New England behave differently, requiring the collection of more information so that conservation tools such as MUs or MPAs can be used most effectively.

In education, the field of implementation science is a discipline dedicated to supporting educators’ use of evidence-based practices (EPBs) to improve school and student outcomes. As highlighted in previous columns in this series, school teams must thoughtfully consider how EBPs align with the school/district core values and fit the local context (Kittelman et al., 2020), how school teaming can enhance implementation of EBPs (Kittelman et al., 2021), and what activities are needed to support implementation of EBPs at different stages (Ward et al., 2021). In this column, we describe how school teams and educators can use implementation drivers to implement EBPs with high implementation fidelity (as they are designed to be implemented; Caroll et al., 2007; Sanetti & Collier-Meek, 2019). We wish to draw attention to the important work of researchers and practitioners from the National Technical Assistance Center on the State Implementation and Scale-Up of Evidence-Based Practices (SISEP; https://sisep.fpg.unc.edu) within the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN; https://nirn.fpg.unc.edu) and the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI; https://ncsi.wested.org).

This is a systematic review of the research data between 1995 and June 2013 concerning faculty development in the use of high-fidelity patient simulation for health professionals and students with a search of the following databases: CINAHL, Nursing and Allied Health Collection: Comprehensive, OVID Medline, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Scopus, and ProQuest Dissertation/Theses Database. The primary search terms were high-fidelity patient simulation and faculty development. Reference lists from relevant articles were also reviewed. Twenty-five studies were included for this review. The majority of the studies were surveys with a few quasi-experimental designs. The themes were similar to those found in the non-research literature: strengths, incentives, barriers, use of faculty champions/simulation coordinator, and faculty development. The validity and reliability differed by study. There are numerous incentives and barriers to the use of high-fidelity patient simulation by faculty. Several examples of faculty development programs have been described in the literature but little evaluation has taken place beyond the end of the program. The goal of the use of high-fidelity patient simulation is to enhance the student’s knowledge, skills, and critical thinking in the care of patients. It is essential that the faculty are competent to provide instruction with high-fidelity patient simulation and therefore, the efficacy of these developmental programs need closer attention.

Background. With the increasing popularity of virtual reality(VR) in gaming              applications, it is important to understand the factors that influence the user experienceof players in VR games. One such factor is the resolution of the VR headsets, whichdetermines the clarity and sharpness of the applications on the screen. However,achieving higher visual details can consume a lot of computational power and limitaccessibility for users with lower-end hardware. Objectives. The aim of this project was to determine if different resolution settingsavailable in VR affect the performance of players, their game experience, and simulator sickness symptoms. The objectives of the thesis project included the developmentof an FPS game prototype with low visual details, designing and conducting a userstudy, and analyzing the data collected during the experiment to find any relationbetween different resolutions on the performance and experience of the participants. Methods. A VR FPS game prototype was developed with a low level of visualdetails which was played in varying resolutions from 2k to 4k. Participants (n=27)were asked to play the game in each resolution and complete surveys on game experience and simulator sickness using standard questionnaires. The performance of theparticipants was measured by recording the time taken to hit targets, and the totalpoints scored at the end of 90 seconds in each resolution. Results. The results indicated that there was no significant difference in player performance and experience of participants in 2k, 3k, and 4k resolutions. The simulatorsickness symptoms such as eyestrain and difficulty in focusing and concentrating werefound to be most extreme in the highest and lowest resolution. Conclusions. In conclusion, this thesis project found that increasing resolution doesnot necessarily increase the performance and experience of players in the VR FPSgame prototype. However, the simulator sickness symptoms depend on the resolutionand are of statistical importance in the highest(4k) and the lowest(2k) resolution.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) is a widely implemented evidence-based practice for consumers with severe mental illness. However, fidelity to the model is variable and program drift, in which programs decrease in fidelity over time, can occur. Given substantial variability in fidelity and program drift in evidence-based practices, a study to examine how to re-implement ACT to high fidelity on established teams was warranted. The present study examined three teams providing moderate fidelity services prior to a state-wide policy change to the definition of ACT. Two of the teams attempted to implement ACT in accordance with state standards, while the third team served as a quasi-control for factors related to other state policy changes, such as a change to the funding mechanism. The implementation effort was examined using qualitative and quantitative measures over a 14-month period at a large, psychosocial rehabilitation center. Themes that were common across all three teams included the perceived negative impact of fee-for-service, ambiguity of stipulations and lack of guidance from the Department of Mental Health (DMH), difficulties with the managed care organization, importance of leadership within the agency, and familiarity with the services. Perceived barriers specific to the implementation of ACT standards included DMH stipulations, staff turnover, lack of resources, and implementation overload, i.e., too many changes at once. One team also had the significant barrier of a misalignment of requirements between two funding sources. Staff attitudes represented both a facilitator and a barrier to ACT implementation, while management being supportive of ACT was viewed as a major facilitator. One of the two teams seeking ACT status was rated at high fidelity within 6 months and maintained high fidelity throughout the study. The other team seeking ACT status never achieved high fidelity and decertified from ACT status after 6 months. The agency’s focus on productivity standards during the implementation effort hampered fidelity on the two teams seeking ACT status and greatly contributed to burnout on all three teams. The team achieving ACT status overcame the barriers in the short-term; however, DMH requirements may have threatened the long-term sustainability of ACT at the agency.

High Fidelity Simulation is a teaching strategy that is becoming well-entrenched in the world of nursing education and is rapidly expanding due to the challenges and demands of the health care environment. The problem addressed in this study is the conflicting research results regarding the effectiveness of HFS for students’ knowledge acquisition after participating in simulation exercises. Specifically this researcher determined the effects of a formatted simulation scenario on knowledge acquisition among nursing students and the students’ satisfaction and selfconfidence with the simulation learning activity. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory (1984) provided the framework for this study. This study used a quantitative quasi-experimental design, specifically, the Solomon Four Research Design with 43 first semester senior nursing students enrolled at a baccalaureate nursing program at a state university in the southeastern United States. The results of the study found that there was not a statistically significant difference between the experimental group (E1) who received HFS (z = -1.47, p = 0.143) in cognitive gains when compared to the students who did not receive the intervention of HFS (C1) (z = -1.78, p = 0.75). The students’ overall perception of HFS was very positive and the simulation activity increased their self-reported level of self-confidence. The results of this study imply that simulation should not be used with the exclusive goal to increase knowledge but rather for students to increase their confidence and to demonstrate their ability to care for a patient at the bedside. It is our duty as nurse educators to systematically evaluate new teaching efforts such as simulation to determine the effectiveness of this remarkable but expensive technology to ensure that we are providing the best learning opportunities possible for our nursing students.