Browsing by Subject "Alignment"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    An analysis of Gateway Technical College instructors' opinions on secondary and postsecondary program alignment.
    (2011-12) Albrecht, Bryan D.
    The purpose of this study was to determine what opinions Gateway Technical College instructors had toward secondary and postsecondary program alignment. Student transition is critical to supporting the mission and vision of Gateway Technical College. The impetus for this study was twofold. First, the quality improvement process established at Gateway Technical College were not alone meeting the need to increase direct enrollment from area high schools; and second, the researcher has extensive professional experience in implementation of tech prep and school-to-career programs and believes alternative approaches to youth transition services are needed for many students. The results of the study showed that Gateway instructors have a strong opinion on the value and need for program alignment between secondary and postsecondary programming but they are not as strong in their support for credit transfer between the systems. It was also evidenced through survey comments and focus group responses that credit should not be the reason for program alignment. Competency development and defined career pathways are highly valued by instructors an measuring students' ability to transition into postsecondary programs and make Gateway a college of first choice.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Re-aligning patient prognosis: the role of collagen in establishing an immunosuppressive microenvironment and facilitating cancer cell dissemination in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
    (2021-10) Callaway, Mackenzie
    Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is an aggressive cancer with particularly poor clinical outcomes, in part, because of a dramatically altered stromal environment and striking immune dysfunction. Physical properties within tumors— such as aligned fiber architectures—are fundamental to cancer progression and invasion, and negatively correlate with survival in cancers like those of the breast. However, the influence of aligned architectures in PDA remains unexplored. Here, we elucidate the role extracellular matrix alignment has in establishing an immunosuppressive, metastasis-conducive tumor microenvironment in early, preinvasive PDA, as well as in precursory pancreatic inflammation. Using both mouse and human samples, we demonstrate an inextricable link between collagen, alignment, and 1) immunosuppressive macrophage localization, phenotype, and function (Chapter 2); 2) epithelial cell extrusion and subsequent invasion from intact ductal structures (Chapter 3). The contribution of alignment in both driving macrophage polarization and tumor cell dissemination could be attributed to altered focal adhesion dynamics, as targeting FAK in vivo resulted in a concomitant decrease in aligned collagen architectures, disseminated tumor cells, metastatic burden, and elongated, immunosuppressive macrophages. In Chapter 4, we explore the interplay between macrophages, collagen, and cancer cell extrusion using novel 3D microtissue co-cultures and human biopsies to reveal contributions of macrophages to dissemination in vitro and in vivo. Importantly, we show aligned collagen signatures and immunosuppressive macrophages are abundantly prevalent in pancreatitis, a known risk factor for PDA, suggesting that pancreatic precursory disease may create stromal memory that is later conducive to early immunosuppression and dissemination of PDA. This work highlights the opportunity to utilize FAK inhibitors to target stromal immunity and architectures and supports a model in which collagen architecture drives the early involution of an immunosuppressive, malignant microenvironment. Further, this thesis underscores the importance of targeting stromal matrices in precursor inflammation, limit cancer progression, and “reprogram” stromal immunity.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    User Redirection and Alignment for Virtual Reality Experiences in Arbitrary Physical Spaces
    (2021-12) Thomas, Jerald
    One of the most daunting problems virtual reality researchers face is how the user navigates the virtual environment, particularly when it is larger than the tracked physical environment. Natural locomotion, or walking, has been shown to have several benefits compared to other navigation techniques but is restricted by the physical environment size and layout. Redirected walking is a technique that enables natural locomotion within a virtual environment that is larger than the available physical space by introducing unnoticeable discrepancies between the user's physical and virtual movements. Redirected walking algorithms can use these discrepancies to map a virtual path onto a more compressed physical path, effectively increasing the size of the physical environment. However, redirected walking still has several shortcomings that prevent it from being used widely outside of academia. The work in this dissertation represents several novel frameworks and methodologies that push the envelope and change how we think about redirected walking. In total, this dissertation presents five significant contributions to the existing body of redirected walking research. These contributions represent new directions in redirected walking research and create a solid foundation for later work. Finally, I discuss the implications of these contributions on redirected walking research moving forward, and I outline several related research vectors for future researchers to develop.