Ursinus College Alumni Journal, November 1954

Two new preceptresses join administrative staff • Ursinus freshman honored by school group • Ursinus college evening school registration increases • Ursinus faculty member presents TV program • Three new members join the Ursinus faculty • Eight-week summer session at Ursinus • 1954-55 academic year opens with 685 students • Williams named dean at Buena Vista College • South Jersey alumni group holds annual dinner dance • Alumni booster group organizes • McKee named dean at New York University • Ursinus colony at University of Delaware • Dr. Robert McAllister directs polio tests • Bunny Harshaw Vosters \u2740 Middle States tennis champion • Dr. Cornelius Weygandt honored by Dr. Wm. J. Phillips • Christian education in India • College supply store under new management • Sports review • 1954 soccer prospects • Women\u27s varsity hockey • Ursinus women\u27s alumni hockey team plays Irish touring team • Ursinus 1954 football squad • Alumni give over $20,000 • Irene Heinly, class secretary explains the success of the class of 1911 • 1954 loyalty fund report • Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Reinhart attribute the success of \u2749 to the aid of the vice chairmen • Report of 1954 loyalty fund campaign • Contributors for the 1954 loyalty fund campaign • UC Messiah chorus largest in history • Curtain Club plans fall production • News about ourselves • Engagements • Weddings • Births • Necrologyhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/alumnijournal/1051/thumbnail.jp

'To live and die [for] Dixie': Irish civilians and the Confederate States of America

Around 20,000 Irishmen served in the Confederate army in the Civil War. As a result, they left behind, in various Southern towns and cities, large numbers of friends, family, and community leaders. As with native-born Confederates, Irish civilian support was crucial to Irish participation in the Confederate military effort. Also, Irish civilians served in various supporting roles: in factories and hospitals, on railroads and diplomatic missions, and as boosters for the cause. They also, however, suffered in bombardments, sieges, and the blockade. Usually poorer than their native neighbours, they could not afford to become 'refugees' and move away from the centres of conflict. This essay, based on research from manuscript collections, contemporary newspapers, British Consular records, and Federal military records, will examine the role of Irish civilians in the Confederacy, and assess the role this activity had on their integration into Southern communities. It will also look at Irish civilians in the defeat of the Confederacy, particularly when they came under Union occupation. Initial research shows that Irish civilians were not as upset as other whites in the South about Union victory. They welcomed a return to normalcy, and often 'collaborated' with Union authorities. Also, Irish desertion rates in the Confederate army were particularly high, and I will attempt to gauge whether Irish civilians played a role in this. All of the research in this paper will thus be put in the context of the Drew Gilpin Faust/Gary Gallagher debate on the influence of the Confederate homefront on military performance. By studying the Irish civilian experience one can assess how strong the Confederate national experiment was. Was it a nation without a nationalism

Thy1+ Nk Cells from Vaccinia Virus-Primed Mice Confer Protection against Vaccinia Virus Challenge in the Absence of Adaptive Lymphocytes

While immunological memory has long been considered the province of T- and B- lymphocytes, it has recently been reported that innate cell populations are capable of mediating memory responses. We now show that an innate memory immune response is generated in mice following infection with vaccinia virus, a poxvirus for which no cognate germline-encoded receptor has been identified. This immune response results in viral clearance in the absence of classical adaptive T and B lymphocyte populations, and is mediated by a Thy1+ subset of natural killer (NK) cells. We demonstrate that immune protection against infection from a lethal dose of virus can be adoptively transferred with memory hepatic Thy1+ NK cells that were primed with live virus. Our results also indicate that, like classical immunological memory, stronger innate memory responses form in response to priming with live virus than a highly attenuated vector. These results demonstrate that a defined innate memory cell population alone can provide host protection against a lethal systemic infection through viral clearance

Two Glycosylation Sites in H5N1 Influenza Virus Hemagglutinin That Affect Binding Preference by Computer-Based Analysis

Increasing numbers of H5N1 influenza viruses (IVs) are responsible for human deaths, especially in North Africa and Southeast Asian. The binding of hemagglutinin (HA) on the viral surface to host sialic acid (SA) receptors is a requisite step in the infection process. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that H5N1 viruses can be divided into 10 clades based on their HA sequences, with most human IVs centered from clade 1 and clade 2.1 to clade 2.3. Protein sequence alignment in various clades indicates the high conservation in the receptor-binding domains (RBDs) is essential for binding with the SA receptor. Two glycosylation sites, 158N and 169N, also participate in receptor recognition. In the present work, we attempted to construct a serial H5N1 HA models including diverse glycosylated HAs to simulate the binding process with various SA receptors in silico. As the SA-α-2,3-Gal and SA-α-2,6-Gal receptor adopted two distinctive topologies, straight and fishhook-like, respectively, the presence of N-glycans at 158N would decrease the affinity of HA for all of the receptors, particularly SA-α-2,6-Gal analogs. The steric clashes of the huge glycans shown at another glycosylation site, 169N, located on an adjacent HA monomer, would be more effective in preventing the binding of SA-α-2,3-Gal analogs

Recovering complete and draft population genomes from metagenome datasets

Assembly of metagenomic sequence data into microbial genomes is of fundamental value to improving our understanding of microbial ecology and metabolism by elucidating the functional potential of hard-to-culture microorganisms. Here, we provide a synthesis of available methods to bin metagenomic contigs into species-level groups and highlight how genetic diversity, sequencing depth, and coverage influence binning success. Despite the computational cost on application to deeply sequenced complex metagenomes (e.g., soil), covarying patterns of contig coverage across multiple datasets significantly improves the binning process. We also discuss and compare current genome validation methods and reveal how these methods tackle the problem of chimeric genome bins i.e., sequences from multiple species. Finally, we explore how population genome assembly can be used to uncover biogeographic trends and to characterize the effect of in situ functional constraints on the genome-wide evolution

Implementing a new mathematics curriculum in England: district Research Lesson Study as a driver for student learning, teacher learning and professional dialogue.

Against a backdrop of a transformation in teacher professional development and learning and state school organisation in England this century, this chapter describes a project which harnessed six cycles of Research Lesson Study at school and district level over two years to tailor the implementation of a new statutory curriculum in England to address the professional development needs of teachers and classroom learning needs of London students. It also reports the findings of research carried out during the project into how these teachers learned and developed this new curricular expertise and practice- knowledge through lesson study dialogues that supported student learning. It concludes by proposing future directions for teacher professional learning research and practice

Recruitment of Histone Deacetylase 3 to the Interferon-A Gene Promoters Attenuates Interferon Expression

Induction of Type I Interferon (IFN) genes constitutes an essential step leading to innate immune responses during virus infection. Sendai virus (SeV) infection of B lymphoid Namalwa cells transiently induces the transcriptional expression of multiple IFN-A genes. Although transcriptional activation of IFN-A genes has been extensively studied, the mechanism responsible for the attenuation of their expression remains to be determined.In this study, we demonstrate that virus infection of Namalwa cells induces transient recruitment of HDAC3 (histone deacetylase 3) to IFN-A promoters. Analysis of chromatin-protein association by Chip-QPCR demonstrated that recruitment of interferon regulatory factor (IRF)3 and IRF7, as well as TBP correlated with enhanced histone H3K9 and H3K14 acetylation, whereas recruitment of HDAC3 correlated with inhibition of histone H3K9/K14 acetylation, removal of IRF7 and TATA-binding protein (TBP) from IFN-A promoters and inhibition of virus-induced IFN-A gene transcription. Additionally, HDAC3 overexpression reduced, and HDAC3 depletion by siRNA enhanced IFN-A gene expression. Furthermore, activation of IRF7 enhanced histone H3K9/K14 acetylation and IFN-A gene expression, whereas activation of both IRF7 and IRF3 led to recruitment of HDAC3 to the IFN-A gene promoters, resulting in impaired histone H3K9 acetylation and attenuation of IFN-A gene transcription.Altogether these data indicate that reversal of histone H3K9/K14 acetylation by HDAC3 is required for attenuation of IFN-A gene transcription during viral infection

Molecular Characterization of Podoviral Bacteriophages Virulent for Clostridium perfringens and Their Comparison with Members of the Picovirinae

Clostridium perfringens is a Gram-positive, spore-forming anaerobic bacterium responsible for human food-borne disease as well as non-food-borne human, animal and poultry diseases. Because bacteriophages or their gene products could be applied to control bacterial diseases in a species-specific manner, they are potential important alternatives to antibiotics. Consequently, poultry intestinal material, soil, sewage and poultry processing drainage water were screened for virulent bacteriophages that lysed C. perfringens. Two bacteriophages, designated ΦCPV4 and ΦZP2, were isolated in the Moscow Region of the Russian Federation while another closely related virus, named ΦCP7R, was isolated in the southeastern USA. The viruses were identified as members of the order Caudovirales in the family Podoviridae with short, non-contractile tails of the C1 morphotype. The genomes of the three bacteriophages were 17.972, 18.078 and 18.397 kbp respectively; encoding twenty-six to twenty-eight ORF's with inverted terminal repeats and an average GC content of 34.6%. Structural proteins identified by mass spectrometry in the purified ΦCP7R virion included a pre-neck/appendage with putative lyase activity, major head, tail, connector/upper collar, lower collar and a structural protein with putative lysozyme-peptidase activity. All three podoviral bacteriophage genomes encoded a predicted N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine amidase and a putative stage V sporulation protein. Each putative amidase contained a predicted bacterial SH3 domain at the C-terminal end of the protein, presumably involved with binding the C. perfringens cell wall. The predicted DNA polymerase type B protein sequences were closely related to other members of the Podoviridae including Bacillus phage Φ29. Whole-genome comparisons supported this relationship, but also indicated that the Russian and USA viruses may be unique members of the sub-family Picovirinae