MMT & Magellan Infrared Spectrograph

The MMT and Magellan infrared spectrograph (MMIRS) is a cryogenic multiple slit spectrograph operating in the wavelength range 0.9-2.4 micron. MMIRS' refractive optics offer a 6.9 by 6.9 arcmin field of view for imaging with a spatial resolution of 0.2 arcsec per pixel on a HAWAII-2 array. For spectroscopy, MMIRS can be used with long slits up to 6.9 arcmin long, or with custom slit masks having slitlets distributed over a 4 by 6.9 arcmin area. A range of dispersers offer spectral resolutions of 800 to 3000. MMIRS is designed to be used at the f/5 foci of the MMT or Magellan Clay 6.5m telescopes. MMIRS was commissioned in 2009 at the MMT and has been in routine operation at the Magellan Clay Telescope since 2010. MMIRS is being used for a wide range of scientific investigations from exoplanet atmospheres to Ly-alpha emitters.Comment: 43 pages, including 11 figures, accepted for publication in PAS

Message (In)Congruence: Tweeting While Competing for Donations

Nonprofit organizations rely on social media to build relationships with their stakeholders and solicit the resources they need to provide their programs and services. This online activity takes place in an increasingly competitive environment. We draw on the situational theory of publics, stakeholder theory, giving motivation, and gamification to examine this question: When organizations engage in competitive philanthropy, what framing is more effective at generating donations on an online platform? We confirm the relationship between tweeting and donation solicitation and shed light on some specific types of messaging associated with increased donations.This study was conducted while the authors were employed at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI. We are thankful for the collaboration with Brackets for Good. We are also thankful for support from our research assistants Emily Peterson and DeeAndria Hampton. This study was partly funded by grants from IUPUI's Sports Innovation Institute and Indiana University's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

Competition and Collaboration in the Nonprofit Sector: Identifying the Potential for Cognitive Dissonance

Nonprofits compete with collaborators and collaborate with competitors regularly. Collaboration, a long-standing normatively preferred strategy for nonprofits, is utilized as modus operandi without thought to the potential unintended consequences. While competition, long deemed a dirty, word for nonprofits is a necessary but undesirable reality, avoided without consideration to the potential benefits. Nonprofits leaders may not be willing to explicitly acknowledge the use of competition as an operational strategy, which makes room for cognitive dissonance to impact the study of nonprofits. This piece identifies impacts of cognitive dissonance offering direction for future research exploring the interactive nature of competing with collaborators.Sports Innovation Institute, IUPUI Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, IUPU

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

A Novel Genetic Circuit Supports Laboratory Automation and High Throughput Monitoring of Inflammation in Living Human Cells

Genetically encoded reporter circuits have been revolutionizing our ability to monitor, manipulate, and visualize specific cellular responses to a variety of environmental stimuli. However, the development of genetic circuits that enable both high throughput (HTP) application and laboratory automation remains challenging. In this report, we describe a novel dual-reporter circuit that utilizes a secretory Gaussia luciferase (Gluc) and a green fluorescent protein (GFP) for monitoring inflammatory signaling, a fundamental process in many life events. We designed and built this genetic circuit into a simple adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector, which is suitable for both simple transfection and efficient transduction protocols. We demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity of this new circuit and its ability to monitor a broad range of inflammatory response in various human cell models. Importantly, this novel system is simple, robust, and readily adaptable to HTP applications and laboratory automation including fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) and microplate reader analysis. By combining both GFP and Gluc in one genetic circuit, our new dual-reporter circuit provides an easy and powerful tool for monitoring and quantifying inflammatory signals in various mammalian cells

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts