Becoming Women Engineers: Dismantled Notions and Distorted Perspectives

In an investigation of (non-international) undergraduate students’ experiences with their engineering major, we interviewed 10 young women asking questions about their interactions with instructors, academic successes/struggles, and any challenges they felt they had faced as women/girls in engineering. Initial findings echoed those in previous research serving to affirm held notions of interventions that would improve women/girls’ experiences in engineering. In reflecting on the research methods and troubling its design, we realized that we had approached the data with limited perspectives. A new approach to analysis opened up concepts and yielded findings that offer a different course of action for abating the STEM crisis. Identity/being and becoming for our participants were framed in reference to different entities and were intermingled with themes of prestige, proof of self, and womaness. Our study invites us to look for solutions to recruitment/retention problems in creative ways. More camps, role models, or extracurricular involvement do not meet the supports these women/girls need. Instead of striving for proportionality, perhaps we should shift the conversation to address the multidimensional ways of being constituted and reconstituted by discursive practices that are always already generating gendered positionings. Let’s equip our students and colleagues with ways of recognizing and questioning these entanglements, not in order to solve a problem, but rather to work through a problem and think more about the processes of being and becoming

Petrology and Geochemistry of Volcanic Rocks from the South Kauaʻi Swell Volcano, Hawaiʻi: Implications for the Lithology and Composition of the Hawaiian Mantle Plume

The South Kauaʻi Swell (SKS) volcano was sampled during four JASON dives and three dredge hauls recovering rocks that range from fresh pillow lavas to altered volcanic breccias. Two geochemical groups were identified: shield-stage tholeiites (5·4–3·9 Ma) and rejuvenation-stage alkalic lavas (1·9–0·1 Ma). The young SKS ages and the coeval rejuvenated volcanism along a 400km segment of the Hawaiian Islands (Maui to Niʻihau) are inconsistent with the timing and duration predictions by the flexure and secondary plume melting models for renewed volcanism. The SKS tholeiites are geochemically heterogeneous but similar to lavas from nearby Kauaʻi, Niʻihau and Waiʻanae volcanoes, indicating that their source regions within the Hawaiian mantle plume sampled a well-mixed zone. Most SKS tholeiitic lavas exhibit radiogenic Pb isotope ratios (208Pb*/206Pb*) that are characteristic of Loa compositions (>0·9475), consistent with the volcano’s location on the west side of the Hawaiian Islands. These results document the existence of the Loa component within the Hawaiian mantle plume prior to 5 Ma. Loa trend volcanoes are thought to have a major pyroxenite component in their source. Calculations of the pyroxenitic component in the parental melts for SKS tholeiites using high-precision olivine analyses and modeling of trace element ratios indicate a large pyroxenite proportion (≥50%), which was predicted by recent numerical models. Rejuvenation-stage lavas were also found to have a significant pyroxenite component based on olivine analyses (40–60%). The abundance of pyroxenite in the source for SKS lavas may be the cause of this volcano’s extended period of magmatism (>5 Myr). The broad distribution of the Loa component in the northern Hawaiian Island lavas coincides with the start of a dramatic magma flux increase (300%) along the Hawaiian Chain, which may reflect a major structural change in the source of the Hawaiian mantle plume

Wnt-5a inhibits the canonical Wnt pathway by promoting GSK-3–independent β-catenin degradation

Wnts are secreted signaling molecules that can transduce their signals through several different pathways. Wnt-5a is considered a noncanonical Wnt as it does not signal by stabilizing β-catenin in many biological systems. We have uncovered a new noncanonical pathway through which Wnt-5a antagonizes the canonical Wnt pathway by promoting the degradation of β-catenin. This pathway is Siah2 and APC dependent, but GSK-3 and β-TrCP independent. Furthermore, we provide evidence that Wnt-5a also acts in vivo to promote β-catenin degradation in regulating mammalian limb development and possibly in suppressing tumor formation

A dinucleotide deletion in the ankyrin promoter alters gene expression, transcription initiation and TFIID complex formation in hereditary spherocytosis

Ankyrin defects are the most common cause of hereditary spherocytosis (HS). In some HS patients, mutations in the ankyrin promoter have been hypothesized to lead to decreased ankyrin mRNA synthesis. The ankyrin erythroid promoter is a member of the most common class of mammalian promoters which lack conserved TATA, initiator or other promoter cis elements and have high G+C content, functional Sp1 binding sites and multiple transcription initiation sites. We identified a novel ankyrin gene promoter mutation, a TG deletion adjacent to a transcription initiation site, in a patient with ankyrin-linked HS and analyzed its effects on ankyrin expression. In vitro, the mutant promoter directed decreased levels of gene expression, altered transcription initiation site utilization and exhibited defective binding of TATA-binding protein (TBP) and TFIID complex formation. In a transgenic mouse model, the mutant ankyrin promoter led to abnormalities in gene expression, including decreased expression of a reporter gene and altered transcription initiation site utilization. These data indicate that the mutation alters ankyrin gene transcription and contributes to the HS phenotype by decreasing ankyrin gene synthesis via disruption of TFIID complex interactions with the ankyrin core promoter. These studies support the model that in promoters that lack conserved cis elements, the TFIID complex directs preinitiation complex formation at specific sites in core promoter DNA and provide the first evidence that disruption of TBP binding and TFIID complex formation in this type of promoter leads to alterations in start site utilization, decreased gene expression and a disease phenotype in viv

Children’s comprehension of informational text: Reading, engaging, and learning

The Reading, Engaging, and Learning project (REAL) investigated whether a classroom intervention that enhanced young children's experience with informational books would increase reading achievement and engagement. Participants attended schools serving low income neighborhoods with 86% African American enrollment. The longitudinal study spanned second through fourth grades. Treatment conditions were: (1) Text Infusion/Reading for Learning Instruction -- students were given greater access to informational books in their classroom libraries and in reading instruction; (2) Text Infusion Alone -- the same books were provided but teachers were not asked to alter their instruction; (3) Traditional Instruction -- students experienced business as usual in the classroom. Children were assessed each year on measures of reading and reading engagement, and classroom instructional practices were observed. On most measures, the informational text infusion intervention did not yield differential growth over time. However, the results inform efforts to increase children’s facility with informational text in the early years in order to improve reading comprehension

The phospholipid membrane compositions of bacterial cells, cancer cell lines and biological samples from cancer patients

While cancer now impacts the health and well-being of more of the human population than ever before, the exponential rise in antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacterial infections means AMR is predicted to become one of the greatest future threats to human health. It is therefore vital that novel therapeutic strategies are developed that can be used in the treatment of both cancer and AMR infections. Whether the target of a therapeutic agent be inside the cell or in the cell membrane, it must either interact with or cross this phospholipid barrier to elicit the desired cellular effect. Here we summarise findings from published research into the phospholipid membrane composition of bacterial and cancer cell lines and biological samples from cancer patients. These data not only highlight key differences in the membrane composition of these biological samples, but also the methods used to elucidate and report the results of this analogous research between the microbial and cancer fields

A Multidisciplinary Breast Cancer Brain Metastases Clinic: The University of North Carolina Experience

Breast cancer brain metastasis (BCBM) confers a poor prognosis and is unusual in requiring multidisciplinary care in the metastatic setting. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) has created a BCBM clinic to provide medical and radiation oncology, neurosurgical, and supportive services to this complex patient population. We describe organization and design of the clinic as well as characteristics, treatments, and outcomes of the patients seen in its first 3 years