Design and Implementation of a Thermoelectric Cooling Solution for a CCD-based NUV Spectrograph

The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a 6U CubeSat designed to obtain transit spectra of more than ten close-orbiting exoplanets. To this end, CUTE houses a near-ultraviolet (~250 – 330 nm) spectrograph based around a novel rectangular Cassegrain telescope; the spectrograph sensor is an off-the-shelf Teledyne e2v CCD. To achieve desired spectral signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), dark current is reduced by cooling the CCD to a temperature of −50 °C with a thermoelectric cooler (TEC). The TEC is driven by a constant current buck converter with an H-bridge topology for bidirectional current control. The packaging of the CCD imposes a maximum time rate of change of temperature of 5 K/min. A cascaded software control loop (discussed here) was developed that constrains this time rate of change within allowable bounds while simultaneously driving the CCD temperature to a desired setpoint. Criteria for sizing a TEC to the application and initial laboratory results are discussed, as well as digital filtering methods employed and possible solutions to integral wind-up

The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment: The First Dedicated Ultraviolet Exoplanet Mission

The past few years of space mission development have seen an increase in the use of small satellites as platforms for dedicated astrophysical research; they offer unique capabilities for time-domain science and complementary advantages over large shared resource facilities like the Hubble Space Telescope, including: (1) low cost and relatively quick development timelines; (2) observing strategies dedicated to niche but important science questions; and (3) ample opportunity for students and early career scientists and engineers to be involved on the front lines of space mission development. The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a NASA-supported 6U CubeSat assembled and tested at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics within the University of Colorado Boulder. It is designed to observe the evolving atmospheres on short-period exoplanets with a dedicated science mission unachievable by current and planned future space missions. CUTE operates with a bandpass of ∼2487 – 3376 Å and an average spectral resolution element of 3.9 Å. The mission launched in September of 2021 and is in the process of conducting transit spectroscopy of approximately one dozen short-period exoplanets during its primary mission. This proceeding describes the overall CUTE satellite program, including the mission development integration and testing, anticipated science return, and lessons learned to improve both universities’ and commercial companies’ ability to create and collaborate on successful academically and research-focused small satellite missions. While CubeSats are becoming increasingly accessible and utilized for scientific research and student education, CUTE serves as an example that university small satellite programs have specific needs to successfully and efficiently achieve both scientific and educational elements. These include (1) a minimum threshold of commercial-off-the-shelf product quality, performance, and support; (2) specific and timely guidelines from launch service providers regarding launch readiness and delivery requirements; (3) and sufficient funding to provide multi-disciplinary engineering and program management support across the developmental life-cycle of the mission

Genetic Associations in the Vitamin D Receptor and Colorectal Cancer in African Americans and Caucasians

Low vitamin D levels are associated with an increased incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) and higher mortality from the disease. In the US, African Americans (AAs) have the highest CRC incidence and mortality and the lowest levels of vitamin D. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene have been previously associated with CRC, but few studies have included AAs. We studied 795 AA CRC cases and 985 AA controls from Chicago and North Carolina as well as 1324 Caucasian cases and 990 Caucasian controls from Chicago and Spain. We genotyped 54 tagSNPs in VDR (46586959 to 46521297 Mb) and tested for association adjusting for West African ancestry, age, gender, and multiple testing. Untyped markers were imputed using MACH1.0. We analyzed associations by gender and anatomic location in the whole study group as well as by vitamin D intake in the North Carolina AA group. In the joint analysis, none of the SNPs tested was significantly associated with CRC. For four previously tested restriction fragment length polymorphisms, only one (referred to as ApaI), tagged by the SNP rs79628898, had a nominally significant p-value in AAs; none of these polymorphisms were associated with CRC in Caucasians. In the North Carolina AAs, for whom we had vitamin D intake data, we found a significant association between an intronic SNP rs11574041 and vitamin D intake, which is evidence for a VDR gene-environment interaction in AAs. In summary, using a systematic tagSNP approach, we have not found evidence for significant associations between VDR and CRC in AAs or Caucasians

Deregulation of the EGFR/PI3K/PTEN/Akt/mTORC1 pathway in breast cancer: possibilities for therapeutic intervention

The EGFR/PI3K/PTEN/Akt/mTORC1/GSK-3 pathway plays prominent roles in malignant transformation, prevention of apoptosis, drug resistance and metastasis. The expression of this pathway is frequently altered in breast cancer due to mutations at or aberrant expression of: HER2, ERalpha, BRCA1, BRCA2, EGFR1, PIK3CA, PTEN, TP53, RB as well as other oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. In some breast cancer cases, mutations at certain components of this pathway (e.g., PIK3CA) are associated with a better prognosis than breast cancers lacking these mutations. The expression of this pathway and upstream HER2 has been associated with breast cancer initiating cells (CICs) and in some cases resistance to treatment. The anti-diabetes drug metformin can suppress the growth of breast CICs and herceptin-resistant HER2+ cells. This review will discuss the importance of the EGFR/PI3K/PTEN/Akt/mTORC1/GSK-3 pathway primarily in breast cancer but will also include relevant examples from other cancer types. The targeting of this pathway will be discussed as well as clinical trials with novel small molecule inhibitors. The targeting of the hormone receptor, HER2 and EGFR1 in breast cancer will be reviewed in association with suppression of the EGFR/PI3K/PTEN/Akt/mTORC1/GSK-3 pathway.USAMRMC {[}BC022276]; Intramural RECDA Award; Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC); MIUR-PRIN; Italian MIUR-FIRB Accordi di Programma; Italian ``Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Universita e della Ricerca (Ministry for Education, Universities and Research) - FIRB-MERIT {[}RBNE08YYBM]; Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance; Italian Ministry of Health, Ricerca Finalizzata Stemness; MIUR FIRB {[}RBAP11ZJFA\_001]; CRO; Italian Association for Cancer Research, (AIRC) (RM PI); Italian Association for Cancer Research, (AIRC) {[}MCO10016]; Italian Ministry of Health; Regione Friuli Venezia-Giuli

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Publisher Correction: Sex-dimorphic genetic effects and novel loci for fasting glucose and insulin variability.

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21276-3</jats:p

The Three Cities Within Toronto: Income Polarization Among Toronto’s Neighbourhoods, 1970-2005

This report is a 2006 Census update of the Centre for Urban and Community Studies (now Cities Centre) Research Bulletin 41, The Three Cities Within Toronto: Income Polarization among Toronto’s Neighbourhoods, 1970 — 2000, published in December 2007. It is one output of a multi-year project on neighbourhood change in greater Toronto over a 35 year period. The research is funded by the Community University Research Alliance and the Public Outreach Grant programs of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.The research is funded by the Community University Research Alliance and the Public Outreach Grant programs of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada