Poverty and Eastern Kentucky School Districts: An Analysis of Effective Interventions that Lead to Academic Success

Poverty is a persistent cycle that plagues the United States, but specifically Eastern Kentucky. This is especially evident within the school districts there. This data was collected in order to help highlight the magnitude of poverty within Eastern Kentucky and its’ impact on the academic success of the students. When analyzing data from the Kentucky School Report Card from the 2016-2017 school year, twenty-four counties were identified as having at least 75% of the student population within the district qualifying for free & reduced lunch. After the identification of those twenty-four counties, the elementary K-Prep Proficiency and Distinguished scores for both Math and Reading for each district were collected. Then each school district was contacted by phone and asked a set of interview questions pertaining to poverty. After receiving feedback from an individual within the district, the answers to the questions were analyzed for trends. The data collected was compared and contrasted to the best research-based practices according to multiple peer-reviewed sources. Information from both the data from the school districts and the literature review were utilized to formulate the most effective interventions that schools should use to allow their students to be successful academically

Mastering Academic Language: Organization and Stance in the Persuasive Writing of High School Students

Beyond mechanics and spelling conventions, academic writing requires progressive mastery of advanced language forms and functions. Pedagogically-useful tools to assess such language features in adolescents’ writing, however, are not yet available. This study examines language predictors of writing quality in 51 persuasive essays produced by high school students attending a linguistically and ethnically diverse inner-city school in the Northeastern U.S. Essays were scored for writing quality by a group of teachers; transcribed and analyzed to generate automated lexical and grammatical measures; and coded for discourse-level elements by researchers who were blind to essays’ writing quality scores. Regression analyses revealed that beyond the contribution of length and lexico-grammatical intricacy, the frequency of organizational markers and one particular type of epistemic stance marker, i.e., epistemic hedges, significantly predicted persuasive essays’ writing quality. Findings shed light on discourse elements relevant for the design of pedagogically-informative assessment tools

High Resolution Optical Imaging Techniques for Rapid Assessment of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the most prevalent and deadly cancer among women worldwide. The current standard for breast lesion diagnosis is histologic assessment with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. Histology has high diagnostic accuracy, but requires extensive time and resources to perform. The objective of this work was to improve diagnosis of early breast cancers by developing approaches to rapidly image and characterize neoplastic tissue and the tumor microenvironment in high resolution optical images. Confocal fluorescence microscopy can image optical sections of tissue without the need for extensive tissue processing. Three studies were performed to evaluate if confocal microscopy images contain sufficient information to identify neoplasia in breast tissue. In a 31 patient study, five pathologists identified neoplasia with high accuracy in confocal and histologic images. In another study, an expert pathologist estimated tumor cellularity in core biopsies with moderate agreement between confocal and histologic images. In a third study, an expert pathologist assigned diagnoses and grades to neoplastic tissue in confocal and histologic images. Limitations of these studies include recruitment of patients at a single center and data assessment by a single reader in two of three studies. Visual assessment for cancer diagnosis is limited by the potential for inter- and intra-observer error. Using a computerized algorithm to segment and quantify architectural features of breast ducts and nuclei, a decision-tree model was developed that classified confocal images of breast tissue sites as neoplastic or non-neoplastic with an overall accuracy of 90%. Another computerized algorithm was developed to segment adipocytes in confocal images and results showed significant differences in phenotypic properties of adipocytes adjacent to neoplastic and non-neoplastic tissue. High resolution microendoscopy (HRME) can be used to rapidly acquire images at a lower cost than confocal microscopy. In a study evaluating HRME and two approaches to improve image contrast, results demonstrated that HRME with structured illumination yields images with high contrast relative to HRME with standard illumination. The unique contribution of these results is the characterization of qualitative and quantitative criteria to evaluate breast tissue and classify neoplasia in optical images, although recognition of invasive lobular carcinoma was limited. The criteria developed in this research may be applied to further development of techniques for objective classification and diagnosis of breast cancer in optical images.

Concert recording 2015-04-26

[Track 01]. Catching shadows / Ivan Trevino -- [Track 02]. Variation in F-sharp minor, op. 24. Theme : Andante cantabile ; Variation I : Allegretto scherzando ; Variations III : Andante molto sostenuto ; Variation V : Vivo scherzando / Léon Stekke -- [Track 03]. Concerto in E minor. Allegro apassionoto / Felix Mendelssohn -- [Track 04]. Cantabile et presto / George Enesco -- [Track 05]. Poem / Charles Griffes -- [Track 06]. Legende / George Enesco -- [Track 07]. Violin concerto in A minor, op. 53. Allegro ma non troppo / Antonin Dvorâk -- [Track 08]. Fantasie concertante / Jacques Casérède

Src Inhibition Blocks c-Myc Translation and Glucose Metabolism to Prevent the Development of Breast Cancer

Preventing breast cancer will require the development of targeted strategies that can effectively block disease progression. Tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors are effective in addressing estrogen receptor–positive (ER+) breast cancer development, but estrogen receptor–negative (ER−) breast cancer remains an unmet challenge due to gaps in pathobiologic understanding. In this study, we used reverse-phase protein array to identify activation of Src kinase as an early signaling alteration in premalignant breast lesions of women who did not respond to tamoxifen, a widely used ER antagonist for hormonal therapy of breast cancer. Src kinase blockade with the small-molecule inhibitor saracatinib prevented the disorganized three-dimensional growth of ER− mammary epithelial cells in vitro and delayed the development of premalignant lesions and tumors in vivo in mouse models developing HER2+ and ER− mammary tumors, extending tumor-free and overall survival. Mechanistic investigations revealed that Src blockade reduced glucose metabolism as a result of an inhibition in ERK1/2–MNK1–eIF4E–mediated cap-dependent translation of c-Myc and transcription of the glucose transporter GLUT1, thereby limiting energy available for cell growth. Taken together, our results provide a sound rationale to target Src pathways in premalignant breast lesions to limit the development of breast cancers

Concert recording 2017-04-23b

[Track 1]. Slowing down. I. Rotations in an emergency [Track 2]. II. Under the city [Track 3]. III. Forfeit [Track 4]. IV. Something comfortable to fall into / Jeremiah Flannery

Results of A Phase 1 study of the oncolytic adenovirus DNX-2401 with radiotherapy for newly diagnosed diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG)

Background A Phase 1, single center study is ongoing to evaluate the conditionally replicative oncolytic adenovirus, DNX-2401 (tasadenoturev), followed by radiotherapy (RT) in pediatric patients with newly diagnosed diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). Methods Patients 1–18 years with newly diagnosed DIPG with no prior treatment, Lansky/Karnofsky performance score ≥ 70, and adequate organ function were enrolled. A tumor biopsy was performed followed by a single intratumoral injection of 1e10-5e10 virus particles (vp) DNX-2401. Conventional radiotherapy was initiated within 1 month of DNX-2401 administration. Results Enrolled subjects (n=12) had a median age of 9 (range 3–18) and performance scores of 90–100 (n=4; 33%) or 70–80 (n=8; 67%). As part of a dose escalation design, subjects were treated with 1e10 vp (n=4) or 5e10 vp DNX-2401 (n=8), which was then followed by standard RT in 11 of 12 subjects (92%). No dose-limiting toxicities were observed and the treatment regimen was well-tolerated. Adverse events (AEs) have been primarily mild to moderate and consistent with underlying disease. The most commonly reported AEs (≥ 5 subjects), regardless of study drug relationship, include headache, asthenia, vomiting, anemia, leukocytosis, and fever. Two SAEs have been reported including grade 3 lymphopenia and grade 3 abdominal pain. Tumor reductions have been observed and efficacy evaluations are ongoing. As of 09Dec2020, 12-month survival (OS-12) was 71% and 4 of 12 patients had survived > 20 months. Four subjects continue to be followed for survival. Correlative analysis of tumor biopsy and peripheral samples is ongoing. Conclusions DNX-2401 followed by RT can be safely administered to pediatric subjects with newly diagnosed DIPG; clinical activity and preliminary survival are encouraging

Pregnancy Does Not Affect HIV Incidence Test Results Obtained Using the BED Capture Enzyme Immunoassay or an Antibody Avidity Assay

Accurate incidence estimates are needed for surveillance of the HIV epidemic. HIV surveillance occurs at maternal-child health clinics, but it is not known if pregnancy affects HIV incidence testing.We used the BED capture immunoassay (BED) and an antibody avidity assay to test longitudinal samples from 51 HIV-infected Ugandan women infected with subtype A, C, D and intersubtype recombinant HIV who were enrolled in the HIVNET 012 trial (37 baseline samples collected near the time of delivery and 135 follow-up samples collected 3, 4 or 5 years later). Nineteen of 51 women were also pregnant at the time of one or more of the follow-up visits. The BED assay was performed according to the manufacturer's instructions. The avidity assay was performed using a Genetic Systems HIV-1/HIV-2 + O EIA using 0.1M diethylamine as the chaotropic agent.During the HIVNET 012 follow-up study, there was no difference in normalized optical density values (OD-n) obtained with the BED assay or in the avidity test results (%) when women were pregnant (n = 20 results) compared to those obtained when women were not pregnant (n = 115; for BED: p = 0.9, generalized estimating equations model; for avidity: p = 0.7, Wilcoxon rank sum). In addition, BED and avidity results were almost exactly the same in longitudinal samples from the 18 women who were pregnant at only one study visit during the follow-up study (p = 0.6, paired t-test).These results from 51 Ugandan women suggest that any changes in the antibody response to HIV infection that occur during pregnancy are not sufficient to alter results obtained with the BED and avidity assays. Confirmation with larger studies and with other HIV subtypes is needed

Selection-Free Zinc-Finger Nuclease Engineering by Context-Dependent Assembly (CoDA)

Engineered zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) enable targeted genome modification. Here we describe Context-Dependent Assembly (CoDA), a platform for engineering ZFNs using only standard cloning techniques or custom DNA synthesis. Using CoDA ZFNs, we rapidly altered 20 genes in zebrafish, Arabidopsis, and soybean. The simplicity and efficacy of CoDA will enable broad adoption of ZFN technology and make possible large-scale projects focused on multi-gene pathways or genome-wide alterations