THE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LECTURER: COLLEAGUE OR COMMODITY

Consumer demands and annual budgetary inconsistencies have caused today's postsecondary academic landscape to continuously shift and change. Challenges to remain competitive or simply survive impact postsecondary institutions at their most fundamental level: those who are teaching the core curricula. Within the discipline of English, lecturers teach the core undergraduate composition courses. They usually work on annual contracts and maintain 4/4 teaching loads with little, if any, job security, for low wages, long hours, and less prestige within the academic community. Yet, the number of postgraduates applying for lectureship positions seems endless. In light of the current academic culture this study asks: is the university English lecturer considered a colleague, or a commodity? The conclusions of the eight participants from six public universities within the University of North Carolina (UNC) system are: 1) Lecturers felt that they and their courses were marginalized by their institutions and to an extent, by their peers. 2) Job satisfaction was linked to the department and to their students rather than to their institution or peers. 3) Validation from teaching and control in their classrooms compensated for the heavy workload, poor wages, and job insecurity. 4) All lecturers felt more status over adjunct faculty but MAs felt less valued than those with PhDs. 5) Lecturers with terminal degrees showed more discontent and viewed this position as transitory. 6) All participants saw themselves as valid contributing professionals and thought that teaching composition was an honorable and important contribution to the institution, department, and to student development

Differences in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium strain invasiveness are associated with heterogeneity in SPI-1 gene expression

Most studies on Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium infection focus on strains ATCC SL1344 or NTCC 12023 (ATCC 14028). We have compared the abilities of these strains to induce membrane ruffles and invade epithelial cells. S. Typhimurium strain 12023 is less invasive and induces smaller membrane ruffles on MDCK cells compared with SL1344. Since the SPI-1 effector SopE is present in SL1344 and absent from 12023, and SL1344 sopE mutants have reduced invasiveness, we investigated whether 12023 is less invasive due to the absence of SopE. However, comparison of SopE+ and SopE− S. Typhimurium strains, sopE deletion mutants and 12023 expressing a sopE plasmid revealed no consistent relationship between SopE status and relative invasiveness. Nevertheless, absence of SopE was closely correlated with reduced size of membrane ruffles. A PprgH–gfp reporter revealed that relatively few of the 12023 population (and that of the equivalent strain ATCC 14028) express SPI-1 compared to other S. Typhimurium strains. Expression of a PhilA–gfp reporter mirrored that of PprgH–gfp in 12023 and SL1344, implicating reduced signalling via the transcription factor HilA in the heterogeneous SPI-1 expression of these strains. The previously unrecognized strain heterogeneity in SPI-1 expression and invasiveness has important implications for studies of Salmonella infection

Volume 11

Table of Contents: Introduction, Dr. Roger A. Byrne, Dean From the Editor, Dr. Larissa Kat Tracy From the Designers, Rachel English, Rachel Hanson Synthesis of 3,5-substituted Parabens and their Antimicrobial Properties, Jacob Coarney, Ryan White Chernobyl: Putting Perestroika and Glasnot to the Test, Joseph Hyman Art by Jenny Raven Watering Down Accessibility: The Issue with Public Access to Alaska\u27s Federal Waterways, Meagan Garrett Why Has the Democratic Republic of the Congo outsourced its Responsibility to Educate its Citizens? Ibrahim Kante Art by Summer Meinhard A Computational Study of Single Molecule Diodes, Lauren Johnson Satire of the State through Discourse: Applying Althusser and Bakhtin, William Dean Howells Editha , Glen Spencer Design by Laura Gottschalk Why did the United Kingdom Vote to Leave the European Union?, Christopher Siefke Art by Pink Powell Art by Natasha Woodmany Method of Detection of PFOA in Water Samples, Katharine Colley Art by Abbey Mays The Rhetorical Construction of eSports\u27 Legitimacy, Charlotte Pott

Performance of diagnostic mammography differs in the United States and Denmark

Diagnostic mammography is the primary imaging modality to diagnose breast cancer. However, few studies have evaluated variability in diagnostic mammography performance in communities, and none has done so between countries. We compared diagnostic mammography performance in community-based settings in the United States and Denmark. The performance of 93,585 diagnostic mammograms from 180 facilities contributing data to the U.S. Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) from 1999 through 2001 was compared to that of all 51,313 diagnostic mammograms performed at Danish clinics in 2000. We used the imaging workup’s final assessment to determine sensitivity, specificity, and an estimate of accuracy: area under the receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) curve (AUC). Diagnostic mammography had slightly higher sensitivity in the United States (85%) than in Denmark (82%). In contrast, it had higher specificity in Denmark (99%) than in the United States (93%). The AUC was high in both countries: U.S. 0.91; and Denmark 0.95. Denmark’s higher accuracy may result from supplementary ultrasound examinations, which are provided to 74% of Danish women but only 37% to 52% of U.S. women. In addition, Danish mammography facilities specialize in either diagnosis or screening, possibly leading to greater diagnostic mammography expertise in facilities dedicated to symptomatic patients. Performance of community-based diagnostic mammography settings varied markedly between the two countries, indicating that it can be further optimized

The Human Lung Adenocarcinoma Cell Line EKVX Produces an Infectious Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus

The cell lines of the NCI-60 panel represent different cancer types and have been widely utilized for drug screening and molecular target identification. Screening these cell lines for envelope proteins or gene sequences related to xenotropic murine leukemia viruses (X-MLVs) revealed that one cell line, EKVX, was a candidate for production of an infectious gammaretrovirus. The presence of a retrovirus infectious to human cells was confirmed by the cell-free transmission of infection to the human prostate cancer cell line LNCaP. Amplification and sequencing of additional proviral sequences from EKVX confirmed a high degree of similarity to X-MLV. The cell line EKVX was established following passage of the original tumor cells through nude mice, providing a possible source of the X-MLV found in the EKVX cells

Identification of 12 new susceptibility loci for different histotypes of epithelial ovarian cancer.

To identify common alleles associated with different histotypes of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), we pooled data from multiple genome-wide genotyping projects totaling 25,509 EOC cases and 40,941 controls. We identified nine new susceptibility loci for different EOC histotypes: six for serous EOC histotypes (3q28, 4q32.3, 8q21.11, 10q24.33, 18q11.2 and 22q12.1), two for mucinous EOC (3q22.3 and 9q31.1) and one for endometrioid EOC (5q12.3). We then performed meta-analysis on the results for high-grade serous ovarian cancer with the results from analysis of 31,448 BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers, including 3,887 mutation carriers with EOC. This identified three additional susceptibility loci at 2q13, 8q24.1 and 12q24.31. Integrated analyses of genes and regulatory biofeatures at each locus predicted candidate susceptibility genes, including OBFC1, a new candidate susceptibility gene for low-grade and borderline serous EOC

The development and validation of a scoring tool to predict the operative duration of elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background: The ability to accurately predict operative duration has the potential to optimise theatre efficiency and utilisation, thus reducing costs and increasing staff and patient satisfaction. With laparoscopic cholecystectomy being one of the most commonly performed procedures worldwide, a tool to predict operative duration could be extremely beneficial to healthcare organisations. Methods: Data collected from the CholeS study on patients undergoing cholecystectomy in UK and Irish hospitals between 04/2014 and 05/2014 were used to study operative duration. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was produced in order to identify significant independent predictors of long (> 90 min) operations. The resulting model was converted to a risk score, which was subsequently validated on second cohort of patients using ROC curves. Results: After exclusions, data were available for 7227 patients in the derivation (CholeS) cohort. The median operative duration was 60 min (interquartile range 45–85), with 17.7% of operations lasting longer than 90 min. Ten factors were found to be significant independent predictors of operative durations > 90 min, including ASA, age, previous surgical admissions, BMI, gallbladder wall thickness and CBD diameter. A risk score was then produced from these factors, and applied to a cohort of 2405 patients from a tertiary centre for external validation. This returned an area under the ROC curve of 0.708 (SE = 0.013, p  90 min increasing more than eightfold from 5.1 to 41.8% in the extremes of the score. Conclusion: The scoring tool produced in this study was found to be significantly predictive of long operative durations on validation in an external cohort. As such, the tool may have the potential to enable organisations to better organise theatre lists and deliver greater efficiencies in care

Rare coding variants in PLCG2, ABI3, and TREM2 implicate microglial-mediated innate immunity in Alzheimer's disease

We identified rare coding variants associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in a 3-stage case-control study of 85,133 subjects. In stage 1, 34,174 samples were genotyped using a whole-exome microarray. In stage 2, we tested associated variants (P<1×10-4) in 35,962 independent samples using de novo genotyping and imputed genotypes. In stage 3, an additional 14,997 samples were used to test the most significant stage 2 associations (P<5×10-8) using imputed genotypes. We observed 3 novel genome-wide significant (GWS) AD associated non-synonymous variants; a protective variant in PLCG2 (rs72824905/p.P522R, P=5.38×10-10, OR=0.68, MAFcases=0.0059, MAFcontrols=0.0093), a risk variant in ABI3 (rs616338/p.S209F, P=4.56×10-10, OR=1.43, MAFcases=0.011, MAFcontrols=0.008), and a novel GWS variant in TREM2 (rs143332484/p.R62H, P=1.55×10-14, OR=1.67, MAFcases=0.0143, MAFcontrols=0.0089), a known AD susceptibility gene. These protein-coding changes are in genes highly expressed in microglia and highlight an immune-related protein-protein interaction network enriched for previously identified AD risk genes. These genetic findings provide additional evidence that the microglia-mediated innate immune response contributes directly to AD development

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat