The Dystrophin-Glycoprotein Complex in the Prevention of Muscle Damage

Muscular dystrophies are genetically diverse but share common phenotypic features of muscle weakness, degeneration, and progressive decline in muscle function. Previous work has focused on understanding how disruptions in the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex result in muscular dystrophy, supporting a hypothesis that the muscle sarcolemma is fragile and susceptible to contraction-induced injury in multiple forms of dystrophy. Although benign in healthy muscle, contractions in dystrophic muscle may contribute to a higher degree of muscle damage which eventually overwhelms muscle regeneration capacity. While increased susceptibility of muscle to mechanical injury is thought to be an important contributor to disease pathology, it is becoming clear that not all DGC-associated diseases share this supposed hallmark feature. This paper outlines experimental support for a function of the DGC in preventing muscle damage and examines the evidence that supports novel functions for this complex in muscle that when impaired, may contribute to the pathogenesis of muscular dystrophy

Rapid actin‐cytoskeleton–dependent recruitment of plasma membrane–derived dysferlin at wounds is critical for muscle membrane repair

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154309/1/fsb2028008034.pd

The Structure of Nuclear Star Clusters in Nearby Late-type Spiral Galaxies from Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 Imaging

We obtained Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 imaging of a sample of ten of the nearest and brightest nuclear clusters residing in late-type spiral galaxies, in seven bands that span the near-ultraviolet to the near-infrared. Structural properties of the clusters were measured by fitting two-dimensional surface brightness profiles to the images using GALFIT. The clusters exhibit a wide range of structural properties. For six of the ten clusters in our sample, we find changes in the effective radius with wavelength, suggesting radially varying stellar populations. In four of the objects, the effective radius increases with wavelength, indicating the presence of a younger population which is more concentrated than the bulk of the stars in the cluster. However, we find a general decrease in effective radius with wavelength in two of the objects in our sample, which may indicate extended, circumnuclear star formation. We also find a general trend of increasing roundness of the clusters at longer wavelengths, as well as a correlation between the axis ratios of the NCs and their host galaxies. These observations indicate that blue disks aligned with the host galaxy plane are a common feature of nuclear clusters in late-type galaxies, but are difficult to detect in galaxies that are close to face-on. In color-color diagrams spanning the near-UV through the near-IR, most of the clusters lie far from single-burst evolutionary tracks, showing evidence for multi-age populations. Most of the clusters have integrated colors consistent with a mix of an old population (> 1 Gyr) and a young population (~100-300 Myr). The wide wavelength coverage of our data provides a sensitivity to populations with a mix of ages that would not be possible to achieve with imaging in optical bands only.Comment: Corrected a typo in author name and affiliation for MC and corrected a typo in the conclusio

Unraveling phonological conspiracies: A case study

This paper focuses on three seemingly unrelated error patterns in the sound system of a child with a phonological delay, Child 218 (male, age 4 years; 6 months) and ascribes those error patterns to a larger conspiracy to eliminate fricatives from the phonetic inventory. Employing Optimality Theory for its advantages in characterizing conspiracies, our analysis offers a unified account of the observed repairs. The contextual restrictions on those repairs are, moreover, attributed to early developmental prominence effects, which are independently manifested in another error pattern involving rhotic consonants. Comparisons are made with a published case study involving a different implementation of the same conspiracy, the intent being to disambiguate the force behind certain error patterns. The clinical implications of the account are also considered.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR703K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

A Tunable Polymer–Metal Based Anti‐Reflective Metasurface

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A Tunable Polymer–Metal Based Anti-Reflective Metasurface

Anti-reflective surfaces are of great interest for optical devices, sensing, photovoltaics, and photocatalysis. However, most of the anti-reflective surfaces lack in situ tunability of the extinction with respect to wavelength. This communication demonstrates a tunable anti-reflective surface based on colloidal particles comprising a metal core with an electrochromic polymer shell. Random deposition of these particles on a reflective surface results in a decrease in the reflectance of up to 99.8% at the localized surface plasmon resonance frequency. This narrow band feature can be tuned by varying the pH or by application of an electric potential, resulting in wavelength shifts of up to 30 nm. Electrophoretic particle deposition is shown to be an efficient method for controlling the interparticle distance and thereby further optimizing the overall efficiency of the anti-reflective metasurface. © 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Returning Students in Engineering Education: Making a Case for “Experience Capital”

Students returning to college are not generally studied, where most of the research on non-traditional students is focused on individuals returning to earn their undergraduate degree. There are, however, many students returning to receive graduate degrees as they pursue new directions in life by interest or economic necessity. Undergraduate students with experience have clear educational related goals, practical approaches to problem-solving, and high learning motivation.Returning graduate students are expected to model similar behaviors. These individuals bring a lifetime of personal and professional expertise, which we identify as “experience capital.”A review of the literature reveals that capital has been pondered since early western philosophers considered the concept of social capital in terms of „community governance‟. Others credit Dewey with the first use of the term „social capital‟. Since then, development of other capitals include human, cultural, and symbolic. Human capital is viewed as knowledge, skills, and attributes; cultural capital as an indicator of class position acquired by family and education ; and symbolic as the prestige, recognition, and fame. Today, social capital is viewed as the networks,relationships, and connections of influence and support. Experience capital is the partial union of social, human, cultural, and symbolic capital, which individuals develop from their persona land professional experiences as they progress through life.This is an exploratory study capturing the perceptions of “experience capital” of individuals with several years of professional experience in their discipline returning for a doctoral degree in engineering education. The research question this study addresses is: what “experience capital”do returning students bring to an engineering education doctoral program? The participants will be interviewed; open coding will be used to identify common themes. The results of this qualitative study will position the experiences of the participants at the partial union of social,human, cultural, and symbolic capital, in a space called experience capital

Level of Care Preferences Among Nursing Home Residents With Advanced Dementia

Delivering goal-directed care is a hallmark of high-quality palliative care, but requires an understanding of preferences

Microstructural Changes in Human Ingestive Behavior After Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass During Liquid Meals

BACKGROUND. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) decreases energy intake and is, therefore, an effective treatment of obesity. The behavioral bases of the decreased calorie intake remain to be elucidated. We applied the methodology of microstructural analysis of meal intake to establish the behavioral features of ingestion in an effort to discern the various controls of feeding as a function of RYGB. METHODS. The ingestive microstructure of a standardized liquid meal in a cohort of 11 RYGB patients, in 10 patients with obesity, and in 10 healthy-weight adults was prospectively assessed from baseline to 1 year with a custom-designed drinkometer. Statistics were performed on log-transformed ratios of change from baseline so that each participant served as their own control, and proportional increases and decreases were numerically symmetrical. Data-driven (3 seconds) and additional burst pause criteria (1 and 5 seconds) were used. RESULTS. At baseline, the mean meal size (909.2 versus 557.6 kCal), burst size (28.8 versus 17.6 mL), and meal duration (433 versus 381 seconds) differed between RYGB patients and healthy-weight controls, whereas suck volume (5.2 versus 4.6 mL) and number of bursts (19.7 versus 20.1) were comparable. At 1 year, the ingestive differences between the RYGB and healthy-weight groups disappeared due to significantly decreased burst size (P = 0.008) and meal duration (P = 0.034) after RYGB. The first-minute intake also decreased after RYGB (P = 0.022). CONCLUSION. RYGB induced dynamic changes in ingestive behavior over the first postoperative year. While the eating pattern of controls remained stable, RYGB patients reduced their meal size by decreasing burst size and meal duration, suggesting that increased postingestive sensibility may mediate postbariatric ingestive behavior. TRIAL REGISTRATION. NCT03747445; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03747445. FUNDING. This work was supported by the University of Zurich, the Swiss National Fund (32003B_182309), and the Olga Mayenfisch Foundation. Bálint File was supported by the Hungarian Brain Research Program Grant (grant no. 2017-1.2.1-NKP-2017-00002)