Overview of changes to the S-STEM and IUSE programs

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM, NSF 20-526) [5] and Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR, NSF 19-601) [4] programs are frequent funding targets for the computer science education (CSEd) community. These programs were discussed in the context of evaluation in an earlier column [1]. NSF programs evolve over time to respond to community needs and changes at the Foundation. The purpose of this column is to bring recent changes to S-STEM and IUSE and other changes at NSF that impact CSEd to the attention of the community

(How) Are Interdisciplinary Studies Relevant to Academia and Industry?

This event was a moderated panel discussion featuring: Curtiss Takada Rooks, Associate Dean of Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, and Faculty Member, Department of American Cultures Eric Strauss, Presidential Professor, Department of Biology and Center for Urban Resilience (CURes) Michele Hammers, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies, and Collaborator, Virtual Engineering Sciences Learning Lab Aliza Sorotzkin, Global Training and Education Manager, Side Effects Software, Inc, maker of 3D animation and visual effects tools Stephanie E. August, Moderator, Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Successful development of an innovative, integrative and interdisciplinary academic curriculum requires understanding the need for change from both intellectual or academic and career perspectives. In this panel discussion, a group of professors who have developed interdisciplinary programs or collaborated on interdisciplinary projects will join with a manager from industry to share their views on the future, experiences working across traditional boundaries, and models for bridging the gap between disciplines. Organized by Stephanie E. August, Ph.D., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

(How) Are Interdisciplinary Studies Relevant to Graduate Studies?

This was a moderated panel discussion featuring panelists: Anthony Bodlović, LMU College of Communication and Fine Arts, Marital and Family Therapy John Carfora, Associate Provost, Research Advancement and Compliance. John has been affiliated with graduate education at The London School of Economics, Dartmouth College, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Teachers College, Columbia University. Michelle Flowers, Doctoral Student in Educational Leadership for Social Justice José García Moreno, Filmmaker, Associate Professor and Chair, LMU School of Film and Television, Department of Animation Interdisciplinary does not mean the sum of disciplines but the instrumentation of a new paradigmatic syntax. Shane Martin, Dean, Graduate Studies, Professor and Dean, LMU School of Education Interdisciplinary graduate programs can be transformative for LMU. Stephanie E. August, Moderator, Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science What roles do interdisciplinary inquiry, creativity, science, and Jesuit pedagogy play in graduate education at LMU? Is each of these an essential element of a graduate program that fulfills the mission of the university? How do we build the bridges across disciplines that are needed to solve the complex problems that lie ahead

An Open Source Software Culture in the Undergraduate Computer Science Curriculum

Open source software has made inroads into mainstream computing where it was once the territory of software altruists, and the open source culture of technological collegiality and accountability may benefit education as well as industry. This paper describes the Recourse project, which seeks to transform the computer science undergraduate curriculum through teaching methods based on open source principles, values, ethics, and tools. Recourse differs from similar projects by bringing the open source culture into the curriculum comprehensively, systematically, and institutionally. The current state of the project is described, and initial results from a pilot exercise are presented

Virtual Engineering Sciences Learning Lab: Giving STEM Education a Second Life

Engineering education in the 21st century faces multiple obstacles including limited accessibility of course resources due, in part, to the costs associated with acquiring and maintaining equipment and staffing laboratories. Another continuing challenge is the low level of participation of women and other groups historically underrepresented in STEM disciplines. As a partial remedy for these issues, we established a Virtual Engineering Sciences Learning Lab (VESLL) that provides interactive objects and learning activities, multimedia displays, and instant feedback procedures in a virtual environment to guide students through a series of key quantitative skills and concepts. Developed in the online virtual world Second LifeTM, VESLL is an interactive environment that supports STEM education, with potential to help reach women and other underrepresented groups. VESLL exposes students to various quantitative skills and concepts through visualization, collaborative games, and problem solving with realistic learning activities. Initial assessments have demonstrated high student interest in VESLL\u27s potential as a supplementary instructional tool and show that student learning experiences were improved by use of VESLL. Ultimately, the VESLL project contributes to the ongoing body of evidence suggesting that online delivery of course content has remarkable potential when properly deployed by STEM educators

The maximum standardized uptake value in patients with recurrent or persistent prostate cancer after radical prostatectomy and PSMA-PET-guided salvage radiotherapy-a multicenter retrospective analysis

Purpose This study aims to evaluate the association of the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) in positron-emission tomography targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA-PET) prior to salvage radiotherapy (sRT) on biochemical recurrence free survival (BRFS) in a large multicenter cohort.Methods Patients who underwent (68) Ga-PSMA11-PET prior to sRT were enrolled in four high-volume centers in this retrospective multicenter study. Only patients with PET-positive local recurrence (LR) and/or nodal recurrence (NR) within the pelvis were included. Patients were treated with intensity-modulated-sRT to the prostatic fossa and elective lymphatics in case of nodal disease. Dose escalation was delivered to PET-positive LR and NR. Androgen deprivation therapy was administered at the discretion of the treating physician. LR and NR were manually delineated and SUVmax was extracted for LR and NR. Cox-regression was performed to analyze the impact of clinical parameters and the SUVmax-derived values on BRFS.Results Two hundred thirty-five patients with a median follow-up (FU) of 24 months were included in the final cohort. Two-year and 4-year BRFS for all patients were 68% and 56%. The presence of LR was associated with favorable BRFS (p = 0.016). Presence of NR was associated with unfavorable BRFS (p = 0.007). While there was a trend for SUVmax values >= median (p = 0.071), SUVmax values >= 75% quartile in LR were significantly associated with unfavorable BRFS (p = 0.022, HR: 2.1, 95%CI 1.1-4.6). SUVmax value in NR was not significantly associated with BRFS. SUVmax in LR stayed significant in multivariate analysis (p = 0.030). Sensitivity analysis with patients for who had a FU of > 12 months (n = 197) confirmed these results.Conclusion The non-invasive biomarker SUVmax can prognosticate outcome in patients undergoing sRT and recurrence confined to the prostatic fossa in PSMA-PET. Its addition might contribute to improve risk stratification of patients with recurrent PCa and to guide personalized treatment decisions in terms of treatment intensification or de-intensification. This article is part of the Topical Collection on Oncology-Genitourinary

Cerebrospinal fluid tau levels are associated with abnormal neuronal plasticity markers in Alzheimer's disease

BACKGROUND: Increased total tau (t-tau) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a key characteristic of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and is considered to result from neurodegeneration. T-tau levels, however, can be increased in very early disease stages, when neurodegeneration is limited, and can be normal in advanced disease stages. This suggests that t-tau levels may be driven by other mechanisms as well. Because tau pathophysiology is emerging as treatment target for AD, we aimed to clarify molecular processes associated with CSF t-tau levels. METHODS: We performed a proteomic, genomic, and imaging study in 1380 individuals with AD, in the preclinical, prodromal, and mild dementia stage, and 380 controls from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative and EMIF-AD Multimodality Biomarker Discovery study. RESULTS: We found that, relative to controls, AD individuals with increased t-tau had increased CSF concentrations of over 400 proteins enriched for neuronal plasticity processes. In contrast, AD individuals with normal t-tau had decreased levels of these plasticity proteins and showed increased concentrations of proteins indicative of blood-brain barrier and blood-CSF barrier dysfunction, relative to controls. The distinct proteomic profiles were already present in the preclinical AD stage and persisted in prodromal and dementia stages implying that they reflect disease traits rather than disease states. Dysregulated plasticity proteins were associated with SUZ12 and REST signaling, suggesting aberrant gene repression. GWAS analyses contrasting AD individuals with and without increased t-tau highlighted several genes involved in the regulation of gene expression. Targeted analyses of SNP rs9877502 in GMNC, associated with t-tau levels previously, correlated in individuals with AD with CSF concentrations of 591 plasticity associated proteins. The number of APOE-e4 alleles, however, was not associated with the concentration of plasticity related proteins. CONCLUSIONS: CSF t-tau levels in AD are associated with altered levels of proteins involved in neuronal plasticity and blood-brain and blood-CSF barrier dysfunction. Future trials may need to stratify on CSF t-tau status, as AD individuals with increased t-tau and normal t-tau are likely to respond differently to treatment, given their opposite CSF proteomic profiles