Reading the World: Supporting Teachers’ Professional Development Using Community-Based Critical Literacy Practices

This paper shares the findings from a study that assessed the impact of a graduate level curriculum that engaged fifty-seven k-12 teachers in community-based critical literacy practices. The findings from the participants‘ written critical reflections following two community exploration activities showed that they gained enhanced awareness of social inequalities. In addition, some of the participants made connections between the observed community disparities and their civic responsibilities to work towards social justice

UVM Tobacco Use and Attitudes After Implementation of a Tobacco-Free Policy

Introduction: Widespread public health initiatives have led to falling smoking rates. Currently, 1,620 U.S. colleges have adopted smoke-free policies. In August 2015, the University of Vermont (UVM) adopted a tobacco-free policy that bans all forms of tobacco use on university property. The purpose of this study was to compare tobacco use and attitudes before and after policy implementation.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1230/thumbnail.jp

LUMOS - Low and Intermediate Grade Glioma Umbrella Study of Molecular Guided TherapieS at relapse: Protocol for a pilot study

Grades 2 and 3 gliomas (G2/3 gliomas), when combined, are the second largest group of malignant brain tumours in adults. The outcomes for G2/3 gliomas at progression approach the dismal outcomes for glioblastoma (GBM), yet there is a paucity of trials for Australian patients with relapsed G2/3 gliomas compared with patients with GBM. LUMOS will be a pilot umbrella study for patients with relapsed G2/3 gliomas that aims to match patients to targeted therapies based on molecular screening with contemporaneous tumour tissue. Participants in whom no actionable or no druggable mutation is found, or in whom the matching drug is not available, will form a comparator arm and receive standard of care chemotherapy. The objective of the LUMOS trial is to assess the feasibility of this approach in a multicentre study across five sites in Australia, with a view to establishing a national molecular screening platform for patient treatment guided by the mutational analysis of contemporaneous tissue biopsies

IRS2 is a candidate driver oncogene on 13q34 in colorectal cancer

Copy number alterations are frequently found in colorectal cancer (CRC), and recurrent gains or losses are likely to correspond to regions harbouring genes that promote or impede carcinogenesis respectively. Gain of chromosome 13q is common in CRC but, because the region of gain is frequently large, identification of the driver gene(s) has hitherto proved difficult. We used array comparative genomic hybridization to analyse 124 primary CRCs, demonstrating that 13q34 is a region of gain in 35% of CRCs, with focal gains in 4% and amplification in a further 1.6% of cases. To reduce the number of potential driver genes to consider, it was necessary to refine the boundaries of the narrowest copy number changes seen in this series and hence define the minimal copy region (MCR). This was performed using molecular copy-number counting, identifying IRS2 as the only complete gene, and therefore the likely driver oncogene, within the refined MCR. Analysis of available colorectal neoplasia data sets confirmed IRS2 gene gain as a common event. Furthermore, IRS2 protein and mRNA expression in colorectal neoplasia was assessed and was positively correlated with progression from normal through adenoma to carcinoma. In functional in vitro experiments, we demonstrate that deregulated expression of IRS2 activates the oncogenic PI3 kinase pathway and increases cell adhesion, both characteristics of invasive CRC cells. Together, these data identify IRS2 as a likely driver oncogene in the prevalent 13q34 region of gain/amplification and suggest that IRS2 over-expression may provide an additional mechanism of PI3 kinase pathway activation in CRC

Evaluation of stroke services in Anglia Stroke Clinical Network to examine the variation in acute services and stroke outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Stroke is the third leading cause of death in developed countries and the leading cause of long-term disability worldwide. A series of national stroke audits in the UK highlighted the differences in stroke care between hospitals. The study aims to describe variation in outcomes following stroke and to identify the characteristics of services that are associated with better outcomes, after accounting for case mix differences and individual prognostic factors. METHODS/DESIGN: We will conduct a cohort study in eight acute NHS trusts within East of England, with at least one year of follow-up after stroke. The study population will be a systematically selected representative sample of patients admitted with stroke during the study period, recruited within each hospital. We will collect individual patient data on prognostic characteristics, health care received, outcomes and costs of care and we will also record relevant characteristics of each provider organisation. The determinants of one year outcome including patient reported outcome will be assessed statistically with proportional hazards regression models. Self (or proxy) completed EuroQol (EQ-5D) questionnaires will measure quality of life at baseline and follow-up for cost utility analyses. DISCUSSION: This study will provide observational data about health service factors associated with variations in patient outcomes and health care costs following hospital admission for acute stroke. This will form the basis for future RCTs by identifying promising health service interventions, assessing the feasibility of recruiting and following up trial patients, and provide evidence about frequency and variances in outcomes, and intra-cluster correlation of outcomes, for sample size calculations. The results will inform clinicians, public, service providers, commissioners and policy makers to drive further improvement in health services which will bring direct benefit to the patients.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

The low density and magnetization of a massive galaxy halo exposed by a fast radio burst

Present-day galaxies are surrounded by cool and enriched halo gas extending to hundreds of kiloparsecs. This halo gas is thought to be the dominant reservoir of material available to fuel future star formation, but direct constraints on its mass and physical properties have been difficult to obtain. We report the detection of a fast radio burst (FRB 181112) with arcsecond precision, which passes through the halo of a foreground galaxy. Analysis of the burst shows the halo gas has low net magnetization and turbulence. Our results imply predominantly diffuse gas in massive galactic halos, even those hosting active supermassive black holes, contrary to some previous results.Comment: Published in Science on 2019 September 26; Main (3 figures; 1 Table) + Supp (12 figures; 7 Tables

Chronic electroconvulsive shock treatment elicits up-regulation of CRF and AVP mRNA in select populations of neuroendocrine neurons

The effects of repeated electroconvulsive seizures (ECS) on expression of mRNAs coding for corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) in neuroendocrine neurons of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis and hypothalamo-neurohypophysial system (HNS) were assessed via semi-quantitative in situ hybridization histochemical analysis. Measures of mRNA content were accompanied by measurement of peptide- and hormone-expression in the relevant neuroendocrine systems. Following 7 daily ECS treatments, CRF mRNA was significantly increased in the medial parvocellular paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of treated rats relative to controls. CRF peptide content of whole PVN homogenates was decreased to 50% of control levels. Changes in CRF message and peptide levels were accompanied by increases in pituitary ACTH content and by elevated plasma corticosterone, suggesting ECS elicits long-term up-regulation of the HPA axis. AVP mRNA in the medial parvocellular PVN, which is known to up-regulate in response to HPA challenge by adrenalectomy, was not increased by ECS. Chronic ECS causes a clear up-regulation of HNS neurons of the supraoptic nucleus, characterized by increased AVP mRNA content, decreased AVP peptide content, and depletion of neurohypophysial AVP. However, no changes were observed in magnocellular vasopressinergic neurons of the PVN, indicating that magnocellular SON and PVN neurons respond differentially to stimulation by ECS. The data indicate that ECS is a potent stimulus for activation of select components of both the HPA axis and the HNS. As such, ECS provides a useful tool for examining mechanism underlying neuroendocrine processes.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27688/1/0000072.pd

The association between green space and cause-specific mortality in urban New Zealand: an ecological analysis of green space utility

<b>Background:</b> There is mounting international evidence that exposure to green environments is associated with health benefits, including lower mortality rates. Consequently, it has been suggested that the uneven distribution of such environments may contribute to health inequalities. Possible causative mechanisms behind the green space and health relationship include the provision of physical activity opportunities, facilitation of social contact and the restorative effects of nature. In the New Zealand context we investigated whether there was a socioeconomic gradient in green space exposure and whether green space exposure was associated with cause-specific mortality (cardiovascular disease and lung cancer). We subsequently asked what is the mechanism(s) by which green space availability may influence mortality outcomes, by contrasting health associations for different types of green space. <b>Methods:</b> This was an observational study on a population of 1,546,405 living in 1009 small urban areas in New Zealand. A neighbourhood-level classification was developed to distinguish between usable (i.e., visitable) and non-usable green space (i.e., visible but not visitable) in the urban areas. Negative binomial regression models were fitted to examine the association between quartiles of area-level green space availability and risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease (n = 9,484; 1996 - 2005) and from lung cancer (n = 2,603; 1996 - 2005), after control for age, sex, socio-economic deprivation, smoking, air pollution and population density. <b>Results:</b> Deprived neighbourhoods were relatively disadvantaged in total green space availability (11% less total green space for a one standard deviation increase in NZDep2001 deprivation score, p < 0.001), but had marginally more usable green space (2% more for a one standard deviation increase in deprivation score, p = 0.002). No significant associations between usable or total green space and mortality were observed after adjustment for confounders. <b>Conclusion</b> Contrary to expectations we found no evidence that green space influenced cardiovascular disease mortality in New Zealand, suggesting that green space and health relationships may vary according to national, societal or environmental context. Hence we were unable to infer the mechanism in the relationship. Our inability to adjust for individual-level factors with a significant influence on cardiovascular disease and lung cancer mortality risk (e.g., diet and alcohol consumption) will have limited the ability of the analyses to detect green space effects, if present. Additionally, green space variation may have lesser relevance for health in New Zealand because green space is generally more abundant and there is less social and spatial variation in its availability than found in other contexts

Limits on precursor and afterglow radio emission from a fast radio burst in a star-forming galaxy

We present a new fast radio burst at 920 MHz discovered during commensal observations conducted with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) as part of the Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients (CRAFT) survey. FRB 191001 was detected at a dispersion measure (DM) of 506.92(4) pc cm$^{-3}$ and its measured fluence of 143(15) Jy ms is the highest of the bursts localized to host galaxies by ASKAP to date. The sub-arcsecond localisation of the FRB provided by ASKAP reveals that the burst originated in the outskirts of a highly star-forming spiral in a galaxy pair at redshift $z=0.2340(1)$. Radio observations show no evidence for a compact persistent radio source associated with the FRB 191001 above a flux density of $15\mu$Jy. However, we detect diffuse synchrotron radio emission from the disk of the host galaxy that we ascribe to ongoing star formation. FRB 191001 was also detected as an image-plane transient in a single 10-s snapshot with a flux density of 19.3 mJy in the low-time-resolution visibilities obtained simultaneously with CRAFT data. The commensal observation facilitated a search for repeating and slowly varying radio emissions 8 hrs before and 1 hr after the burst. We found no variable radio emission on timescales ranging from 1 ms to 1.4 hr. We report our upper limits and briefly review FRB progenitor theories in the literature which predict radio afterglows. Our data are still only weakly constraining of any afterglows at the redshift of the FRB. Future commensal observations of more nearby and bright FRBs will potentially provide stronger constraints.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Mapping Obscured Star Formation in the Host Galaxy of FRB 20201124A

We present high-resolution 1.5--6 GHz Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and $\textit{Hubble Space Telescope}$ ($\textit{HST}$) optical and infrared observations of the extremely active repeating fast radio burst (FRB) FRB$\,$20201124A and its barred spiral host galaxy. We constrain the location and morphology of star formation in the host and search for a persistent radio source (PRS) coincident with FRB$\,$20201124A. We resolve the morphology of the radio emission across all frequency bands and measure a star formation rate SFR $\approx 8.9\,M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$, a factor of $\approx 4-6$ larger than optically-inferred SFRs, demonstrating dust-obscured star formation throughout the host. Compared to a sample of all known FRB hosts with radio emission, the host of FRB$\,$20201124A has the most significant obscured star formation. While ${\it HST}$ observations show the FRB to be offset from the bar or spiral arms, the radio emission extends to the FRB location. We propose that the FRB progenitor could have formed $\textit{in situ}$ (e.g., a magnetar central engine born from the explosion of a massive star). It is still plausible, although less likely, that the progenitor of FRB$\,$20201124A migrated from the central bar of the host, e.g., via a runaway massive star. We further place a limit on the luminosity of a putative PRS at the FRB position of $L_{\rm 6.0 \ GHz}$$\lesssim$2.6$\times$$10^{27}$erg s$^{-1}$Hz$^{-1}$, two orders of magnitude below any PRS known to date. However, this limit is still broadly consistent with both magnetar nebulae and hypernebulae models assuming a constant energy injection rate of the magnetar and an age of$\gtrsim 10^{5}$ yr in each model, respectively.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, Submitte