Opening Doorways: Connecting Petersburg Students to the World of Health Science Professions

This project creates a strategy to build a pipeline that begins in elementary school and is reinforced through middle and high school. This early exposure and understanding of health career opportunities is needed. Too many communities in Virginia experience critical health care inequities in services and information. To address those inequities, we need to open doorways to investigate health careers. By inspiring students from these communities to enter medical and health sciences professions, there is better representation and services to these underrepresented communities. VCU not only can provide exposure to various health careers, experiential learning and mentoring on how to navigate through academia into a chosen field but also strength community engaged

Nutrient and Phytoplankton Dynamics on the Inner Shelf of the Eastern Bering Sea

In the Bering Sea, the nitrogen cycle near Nunivak Island is complicated due to limited nutrient replenishment across this broad shelf, and substantial nitrogen loss through sedimentary processes. While diffusion at the inner front may periodically support new production, the inner shelf in this region is generally described as a regenerative system. This study combines hydrographic surveys with measurements of nitrogen assimilation and benthic fluxes to examine nitrogen cycling on the inner shelf, and connectivity between the middle and inner shelves of the southern and central Bering Sea. Results establish the inner shelf as primarily a regenerative system even in spring, although new production can occur at the inner front. Results also identify key processes that influence nutrient supply to the inner shelf and reveal coupling between the middle shelf nutrient pool and production on the inner shelf

Results of the first Arctic Heat Open Science Experiment

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 99 (2018): 513-520, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0323.1.Seasonally ice-covered marginal seas are among the most difficult regions in the Arctic to study. Physical constraints imposed by the variable presence of sea ice in all stages of growth and melt make the upper water column and air–sea ice interface especially challenging to observe. At the same time, the flow of solar energy through Alaska’s marginal seas is one of the most important regulators of their weather and climate, sea ice cover, and ecosystems. The deficiency of observing systems in these areas hampers forecast services in the region and is a major contributor to large uncertainties in modeling and related climate projections. The Arctic Heat Open Science Experiment strives to fill this observation gap with an array of innovative autonomous floats and other near-real-time weather and ocean sensing systems. These capabilities allow continuous monitoring of the seasonally evolving state of the Chukchi Sea, including its heat content. Data collected by this project are distributed in near–real time on project websites and on the Global Telecommunications System (GTS), with the objectives of (i) providing timely delivery of observations for use in weather and sea ice forecasts, for model, and for reanalysis applications and (ii) supporting ongoing research activities across disciplines. This research supports improved forecast services that protect and enhance the safety and economic viability of maritime and coastal community activities in Alaska. Data are free and open to all (see www.pmel.noaa.gov/arctic-heat/).This work was supported by NOAA Ocean and Atmospheric Research and the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) under NOAA Cooperative Agreement NA15OAR4320063 and by the Innovative Technology for Arctic Exploration (ITAE) program at JISAO/PMEL. Jayne, Robbins, and Ekholm were supported by ONR (N00014-12-10110)

Sound Studies Meets Deaf Studies

Sound studies and Deaf studies may seem at first impression to operate in worlds apart. We argue in this article, however, that similar renderings of hearing, deafness, and seeing as ideal types - and as often essentialized sensory modes - make it possible to read differences between Sound studies and Deaf studies as sites of possible articulation. We direct attention to four zones of productive overlap, attending to how sound is inferred in deaf and Deaf practice, how reimagining sound in the register of low-frequency vibration can upend deafhearing dichotomies, how “deaf futurists“ champion cyborg sound, and how signing and other non-spoken communicative practices might undo phonocentric models of speech. Sound studies and Deaf studies emerge as fields with much to offer one another epistemologically, theoretically, and practically

Systematic Analysis of Cis-Elements in Unstable mRNAs Demonstrates that CUGBP1 Is a Key Regulator of mRNA Decay in Muscle Cells

BACKGROUND: Dramatic changes in gene expression occur in response to extracellular stimuli and during differentiation. Although transcriptional effects are important, alterations in mRNA decay also play a major role in achieving rapid and massive changes in mRNA abundance. Moreover, just as transcription factor activity varies between different cell types, the factors influencing mRNA decay are also cell-type specific. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We have established the rates of decay for over 7000 transcripts expressed in mouse C2C12 myoblasts. We found that GU-rich (GRE) and AU-rich (ARE) elements are over-represented in the 3'UTRs of short-lived mRNAs and that these mRNAs tend to encode factors involved in cell cycle and transcription regulation. Stabilizing elements were also identified. By comparing mRNA decay rates in C2C12 cells with those previously measured for pluripotent and differentiating embryonic stem (ES) cells, we identified several groups of transcripts that exhibit cell-type specific decay rates. Further, whereas in C2C12 cells the impact of GREs on mRNA decay appears to be greater than that of AREs, AREs are more significant in ES cells, supporting the idea that cis elements make a cell-specific contribution to mRNA stability. GREs are recognized by CUGBP1, an RNA-binding protein and instability factor whose function is affected in several neuromuscular diseases. We therefore utilized RNA immunoprecipitation followed by microarray (RIP-Chip) to identify CUGBP1-associated transcripts. These mRNAs also showed dramatic enrichment of GREs in their 3'UTRs and encode proteins linked with cell cycle, and intracellular transport. Interestingly several CUGBP1 substrate mRNAs, including those encoding the myogenic transcription factors Myod1 and Myog, are also bound by the stabilizing factor HuR in C2C12 cells. Finally, we show that several CUGBP1-associated mRNAs containing 3'UTR GREs, including Myod1, are stabilized in cells depleted of CUGBP1, consistent with the role of CUGBP1 as a destabilizing factor. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our results systematically establish cis-acting determinants of mRNA decay rates in C2C12 myoblast cells and demonstrate that CUGBP1 associates with GREs to regulate decay of a wide range of mRNAs including several that are critical for muscle development

Genomic Relationships, Novel Loci, and Pleiotropic Mechanisms across Eight Psychiatric Disorders

Genetic influences on psychiatric disorders transcend diagnostic boundaries, suggesting substantial pleiotropy of contributing loci. However, the nature and mechanisms of these pleiotropic effects remain unclear. We performed analyses of 232,964 cases and 494,162 controls from genome-wide studies of anorexia nervosa, attention-deficit/hyper-activity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and Tourette syndrome. Genetic correlation analyses revealed a meaningful structure within the eight disorders, identifying three groups of inter-related disorders. Meta-analysis across these eight disorders detected 109 loci associated with at least two psychiatric disorders, including 23 loci with pleiotropic effects on four or more disorders and 11 loci with antagonistic effects on multiple disorders. The pleiotropic loci are located within genes that show heightened expression in the brain throughout the lifespan, beginning prenatally in the second trimester, and play prominent roles in neurodevelopmental processes. These findings have important implications for psychiatric nosology, drug development, and risk prediction.Peer reviewe

Proceedings of the 3rd Biennial Conference of the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC) 2015: advancing efficient methodologies through community partnerships and team science

It is well documented that the majority of adults, children and families in need of evidence-based behavioral health interventionsi do not receive them [1, 2] and that few robust empirically supported methods for implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs) exist. The Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC) represents a burgeoning effort to advance the innovation and rigor of implementation research and is uniquely focused on bringing together researchers and stakeholders committed to evaluating the implementation of complex evidence-based behavioral health interventions. Through its diverse activities and membership, SIRC aims to foster the promise of implementation research to better serve the behavioral health needs of the population by identifying rigorous, relevant, and efficient strategies that successfully transfer scientific evidence to clinical knowledge for use in real world settings [3]. SIRC began as a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded conference series in 2010 (previously titled the “Seattle Implementation Research Conference”; $150,000 USD for 3 conferences in 2011, 2013, and 2015) with the recognition that there were multiple researchers and stakeholdersi working in parallel on innovative implementation science projects in behavioral health, but that formal channels for communicating and collaborating with one another were relatively unavailable. There was a significant need for a forum within which implementation researchers and stakeholders could learn from one another, refine approaches to science and practice, and develop an implementation research agenda using common measures, methods, and research principles to improve both the frequency and quality with which behavioral health treatment implementation is evaluated. SIRC’s membership growth is a testament to this identified need with more than 1000 members from 2011 to the present.ii SIRC’s primary objectives are to: (1) foster communication and collaboration across diverse groups, including implementation researchers, intermediariesi, as well as community stakeholders (SIRC uses the term “EBP champions” for these groups) – and to do so across multiple career levels (e.g., students, early career faculty, established investigators); and (2) enhance and disseminate rigorous measures and methodologies for implementing EBPs and evaluating EBP implementation efforts. These objectives are well aligned with Glasgow and colleagues’ [4] five core tenets deemed critical for advancing implementation science: collaboration, efficiency and speed, rigor and relevance, improved capacity, and cumulative knowledge. SIRC advances these objectives and tenets through in-person conferences, which bring together multidisciplinary implementation researchers and those implementing evidence-based behavioral health interventions in the community to share their work and create professional connections and collaborations

Resiliency factors of the North American indigenous people

Includes bibliographical references