Redesign of NYS IPM Website, http://www.nysipm.cornell.edu

The NYS IPM Program’s website is primarily a collection of documents about IPM practices, or about the program itself. Through the website one can access 12 Crop Profiles, 27 Elements of IPM, 117 Fact Sheets, 434 Project Reports, 10 Labeling documents, 80 Program description pages, 22 PSAs, over 100 online Brochures, Manuals, and Scholarly Papers, and numerous titles listed in our Catalog. Other supporting and informative pages bring the total to approximately 1800 pages. While the website in its current state is fulfilling its mission, (we expect to have over 1 million pages successfully downloaded by visitors this year), it was decided a year ago that the site could be much more efficient. Crafting ever-growing lists of our publications for static pages, and keeping them up-to-date, was becoming an overwhelming task. The graphic interface was beginning to look tired and old. A redesign was needed that would better handle the volume of information the site provides, and update its look

Sixth-Grade Map and Globe Skills Curriculum

There has been much concern recently about the lack of basic map and globe skills among America\u27s youth. Map and globe skills are a basic tool of social studies used throughout the rest of students\u27 academic, professional and personal lives. These skills incorporate the development of problem-solving and critical thinking skills. The focus of this project was to develop a map and globe skills curriculum for teaching these skills to sixth-graders in Putnam County, Florida, when they first encounter daily social studies classes

Rodent Research and Education

In cooperation with researchers from the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University, a survey of Norway rat ectoparasites and pathogens was conducted from October 2012 to June 2013 in New York City. Two manuscripts detailing the results of this work are in preparation. During the course of this research, images and videos were taken of rodents, their requirements to survive and evidence of an infestation. These resources were used to create a series of four videos on rodent biology and management. A proposal submitted to the Northeast IPM Center would support the development of guidelines to manage mice in multifamily housing and reduce health risks associated infestations

Apoptotic MSCs, COX2/PGE2 and clinical efficacy in Crohn fistula

The clinical application of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) has been approved for use in pediatric graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and perianal fistulizing Crohn disease. MSCs have also been investigated in an array of other inflammatory disease indications. Despite promising results in patients who respond to MSC administration, a significant proportion of patients do not respond, and this has significantly dampened enthusiasm for MSC-based cell therapy. A better understanding of the mechanism of action (MOA) involved in the therapeutic effects of MSCs may help to stratify patients who will respond to MSC administration. In this issue of Molecular Therapy, Cheung et al. publish their findings on the role of caspase-mediated apoptosis of MSCs, leading to the release of immunosuppressive factors, including prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), which correlated with clinical responsiveness in Crohn's disease patients.1 The authors build upon on their previous study that identified a correlation between the induction of apoptosis mediated by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with GvHD who responded to MSC administration.2 In the present article, Cheung et al. demonstrate once again a correlation between apoptosis induction in MSCs and a role for cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2)/PGE2 in mediating immunosuppressive effects in patients with Crohn's disease who responded to MSC therapy.1 The significance of this study is that it identifies potential assays that could be used to stratify patients based on the capacity of patient PBMCs to induce MSC apoptosis and/or the use of PGE2 levels produced from PBMC-induced apoptotic MSCs

Murine mesenchymal stem cells suppress dendritic cell migration, maturation and antigen presentation

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) possess a wide range of immunosuppressive functions. Among these is the ability to inhibit CD4+ T cell proliferation. Dendritic cells (DC) play a role in initiating cell-mediated immunity; however, the immunosuppressive influence of MSC on professional antigen presenting cells remains unclear.DC exposed to TNF- and cultured with murine MSC failed to show regular upregulation of maturation markers. Similarly, the presence of MSC abrogated the capacity of ovalbumin-pulsed DC to support antigen specific CD4+ T cell proliferation, or for DC to display an MHC class II- peptide complex recognizable by specific antibody. Interestingly, culture of MSC with DC resulted in reduced expression of CCR7 by DC following stimulation. Likewise, DC matured in the presence of MSC, showed significantly less migration to CCL19. In contrast, murine MSC prevented loss of expression of the tissue anchoring protein E-cadherin by DC. Modulation of DC maturation and function was not permanent and could be restored after removal of MSC. These data demonstrate that MSC modulate the three cardinal features of DC maturation, providing the first demonstration of MSC interference with DC migratio

Interleukin-10 (IL-10) but not Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) produces increased motor activity and abnormal exploratory patterns while impairing spatial learning in Balb/c mice

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a potent endotoxin, which produces âsickness behavioursâ including loss of weight, loss of interest in food and decreased exploration. LPS has also been shown in some studies to cause deficits in various learning and memory abilities, while in others these LPS-induced learning impairments have been attributed to performance-related deficits rather than learning deficits per se. Here, we use the novelty-preference paradigm, a task that minimises performance-related factors such as motivation, in an attempt to extract and examine the effects of LPS on spatial learning. In addition, some studies have indicated that the anti-inflammatory cytokine Interleukin-10 (IL-10) can alleviate some of the symptoms induced by LPS. Here, we also examine the effect of IL-10 on feeding, motor and learning behaviours. We demonstrate that a single injection of LPS does produce a lack of interest in food and weight loss; LPS, however, does not impair habituation in the noveltypreference paradigm. Furthermore, co-injection of IL-10 with LPS does not attenuate the LPS-induced effects of weight loss and lack of food intake. Interestingly, a single injection of IL-10 produces abnormal patterns of exploration, a general increase in activity and abnormal patterns of habituation

You have three tries before lockout – Why three?

It is considered good practice to lock users out if they enter the wrong password three times. This is applied almost universally by systems across the globe. Three tries is probably considered a good balance between allowing the legitimate user to make some genuine errors and foiling an attacker. It must be acknowledged that this rule makes sense intuitively yet there is no empirical evidence that three tries is the most efficacious number. It is entirely possible that the number should not be three, but some other number, such as five or even seven. It is very hard to test this since attempts could be either a legitimate user attempting to recall his/her password, or an intruder trying to breach the account. If an attacker is allowed more attempts one could imagine the system’s security being compromised. Here we argue for the use of a simulation engine to test the effects of such password-related security measures on the security of the entire eco-system. A simulation approach expedites no-risk empirical testing. We use a simulator called SimPass which models both user password-related behaviour and potential password-based attacks from within and outside an organization. We will firstly validate SimPass’s output by quantifying the security impact of increasing the prevalence of password sharing. This kind of behaviour has predictable results, since increased sharing will inevitably lead to more use of others’ credentials. Having shown that SimPass produces credible results, we then test different settings for locking of accounts after a certain number of failed authentication attempts to determine the optimal setting. We find that a three times lockout policy might well be too stringent

In fateful moments: the appeal of parent testimonials when selling private tutoring

Australia’s private tutoring market is expanding in a context where parents’ trust in school personnel as educational experts is vulnerable. Simultaneously, a parentocratic logic is nudging parents to infuse the resources at their disposal into their pedagogic work in order to achieve the educational outcomes that they wish for their children. However, little is known about the specific strategies that private tutoring suppliers are using to attract prospective parents. This paper reports on a study of 160 parent testimonials published on the websites of 16 private tutoring suppliers in Australia. Drawing on Giddens’ concept of ‘fateful moments’ and Bauman’s work on the persuasion of the peer example, together with tools of critical discourse analysis, we argue that parent testimonials use emotional appeals to construct private tutoring as a resolution to parents’ fateful moments. In addition, we speculate that this emotional footing resonates with the pedagogic preferences of the dominant Australian middle classes

An HI Threshold for Star Cluster Formation in Tidal Debris

Super star clusters are young, compact star clusters found in the central regions of interacting galaxies. Recently, they have also been reported to preferentially form in certain tidal tails, but not in others. In this paper, we have used 21 cm HI maps and the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 images of eight tidal tail regions of four merging galaxy pairs to compare the kiloparsec scale HI distribution with the location of super star clusters found from the optical images. For most of the tails, we find that there is an increase in super star cluster density with increasing projected HI column density, such that the star cluster density is highest when log N(HI) >= 20.6 cm^{-2}, but equal to the background count rate at lower HI column density. However, for two tails (NGC 4038/39 Pos A and NGC 3921), there is no significant star cluster population despite the presence of gas at high column density. This implies that the N(HI) threshold is a necessary but not sufficient condition for cluster formation. Gas volume density is likely to provide a more direct criterion for cluster formation, and other factors such as gas pressure or strength of encounter may also have an influence. Comparison of HI thresholds needed for formation of different types of stellar structures await higher resolution HI and optical observations of larger numbers of interacting galaxies.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

Drug delivery formulation impacts cyclosporine efficacy in a humanised mouse model of acute graft versus host disease

Acute graft versus host disease (aGvHD) is an allogeneic T cell mediated disease which manifests as a severe inflammatory disease affecting multiple organs including the liver, skin, lungs and gastrointestinal tract. Existing prophylactic and therapeutic approaches in aGvHD include the use of cyclosporine A (CyA), however the currently approved CyA formulations which were designed to optimise systemic CyA bioavailability can have a number of side effects including nephrotoxicity as well as the potential to attenuate the beneficial Graft-versus-Leukemia (GvL) effect. An added complication with CyA is that it has a narrow therapeutic window, and following oral administration is absorbed only from the small intestine, with variable cytochrome P450 metabolism contributing to intra- and inter-patient variability. This study sought to investigate the efficacy of a novel CyA oral formulation enabled by the integrated SmPill® oral drug delivery platform in a humanised mouse model of aGvHD. The study compared the approved optimised CyA (Neoral®) with SmPill®-enabled CyA and a systemic intravenous CyA formulation. Our findings clearly demonstrate superior efficacy of the novel SmPill® CyA in prolonging survival in a clinically relevant humanised aGvHD model. SmPill® CyA significantly reduced pathological score in the small intestine, colon, liver and lung of aGvHD mice. In addition, SmPill® CyA significantly reduced the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in all the GvHD target tissues examined. Notably, SmPill® CyA was significantly more potent in reducing GvHD associated pathology and inflammatory cytokine production compared to the optimised approved oral CyA formulation, Neoral®