Ethics, technology, and standard practice in communication centers: Proposing a continuing education credit program based on lessons learned from law, business, and healthcare

Communication centers on university campuses can benefit from an examination of the service and relationship-centered elements of the legal profession, business, and healthcare. Meaningful parallels are presented in three areas: standard practice and education, ethics, and technology. Based on its findings, this article argues centers consider adopting a continuing education credit program. A framework for the program is provided, presenting four categories related to intended outcomes: communication skills, professional development, interpersonal training, and ethics. The program is an intervention concerned with quality and may have the potential to improve a center’s training methods, the tutoring process, and the organization as a whole.

Making an impression @UTampaSpeech: A case study using Instagram at The University of Tampa’s Center for Public Speaking

Instagram is one of the most widely used social networking sites for college students (Smith & Anderson, 2018). But using a medium because it is popular does not equate to effective use. During 2018-2019, The University of Tampa’s Center for Public Speaking performed an 11-month case study to assess our use of Instagram to examine whether it was the right platform for our communication center. We determined it was, and we offer “best practices” to use in the future and suggest other communication centers consider performing case studies of their own to assess their use of social media.

Four-week rapamycin treatment improves muscular dystrophy in a fukutin-deficient mouse model of dystroglycanopathy

Tissue mass-normalized values of cytochrome C reduced in vitro by succinate dehydrogenase from homogenized TAs of VEH- or RAPA-treated LC and KO mice. Two-way ANOVA. (PDF 291 kb

A two-step mechanism for epigenetic specification of centromere identity and function

The basic determinant of chromosome inheritance, the centromere, is specified in many eukaryotes by an epigenetic mark. Using gene targeting in human cells and fission yeast, chromatin containing the centromere-specific histone H3 variant CENP-A is demonstrated to be the epigenetic mark that acts through a two-step mechanism to identify, maintain and propagate centromere function indefinitely. Initially, centromere position is replicated and maintained by chromatin assembled with the centromere-targeting domain (CATD) of CENP-A substituted into H3. Subsequently, nucleation of kinetochore assembly onto CATD-containing chromatin is shown to require either the amino- or carboxy-terminal tail of CENP-A for recruitment of inner kinetochore proteins, including stabilizing CENP-B binding to human centromeres or direct recruitment of CENP-C, respectively.National Institutes of Health grant: (GM 074150); Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research; European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) long-term fellowship

Factors associated with COVID-19-related death in people with rheumatic diseases: results from the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance physician-reported registry

Objectives: To determine factors associated with COVID-19-related death in people with rheumatic diseases. Methods: Physician-reported registry of adults with rheumatic disease and confirmed or presumptive COVID-19 (from 24 March to 1 July 2020). The primary outcome was COVID-19-related death. Age, sex, smoking status, comorbidities, rheumatic disease diagnosis, disease activity and medications were included as covariates in multivariable logistic regression models. Analyses were further stratified according to rheumatic disease category. Results: Of 3729 patients (mean age 57 years, 68% female), 390 (10.5%) died. Independent factors associated with COVID-19-related death were age (66-75 years: OR 3.00, 95% CI 2.13 to 4.22; >75 years: 6.18, 4.47 to 8.53; both vs ≤65 years), male sex (1.46, 1.11 to 1.91), hypertension combined with cardiovascular disease (1.89, 1.31 to 2.73), chronic lung disease (1.68, 1.26 to 2.25) and prednisolone-equivalent dosage >10 mg/day (1.69, 1.18 to 2.41; vs no glucocorticoid intake). Moderate/high disease activity (vs remission/low disease activity) was associated with higher odds of death (1.87, 1.27 to 2.77). Rituximab (4.04, 2.32 to 7.03), sulfasalazine (3.60, 1.66 to 7.78), immunosuppressants (azathioprine, cyclophosphamide, ciclosporin, mycophenolate or tacrolimus: 2.22, 1.43 to 3.46) and not receiving any disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) (2.11, 1.48 to 3.01) were associated with higher odds of death, compared with methotrexate monotherapy. Other synthetic/biological DMARDs were not associated with COVID-19-related death. Conclusion: Among people with rheumatic disease, COVID-19-related death was associated with known general factors (older age, male sex and specific comorbidities) and disease-specific factors (disease activity and specific medications). The association with moderate/high disease activity highlights the importance of adequate disease control with DMARDs, preferably without increasing glucocorticoid dosages. Caution may be required with rituximab, sulfasalazine and some immunosuppressants