Investigating the role of TRPA1 and TRPV1 ion channels in the cough reflex

Cough is under the control of sensory afferents which innervate the airways via the vagus nerve. Cough is an important protective reflex that clears the airway, but can become exacerbated and deleterious when associated with airways diseases, in which there is enhanced release of inflammatory mediators and a decrease in lung pH. These mediators sensitise airway afferents and could be driving enhanced cough associated with inflammation. Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) ion channels are associated with several disease pathologies. TRPV1 has an established role in cough, and is implicated in the aetiology of chronic cough; and TRPA1 is a promising new target. Involvement of these ion channels in the tussive reflex is awaiting comprehensive investigation. I have therefore explored the role of TRPA1 and TRPV1 in tussive responses to the endogenous irritants prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), bradykinin (BK) and low pH. To do this I have used selective antagonists and genetically modified mice in models of human, guinea pig and mouse vagal sensory nerve depolarisation; conscious guinea pig cough; and guinea pig primary ganglia cell imaging. TRPA1 and TRPV1 were shown to mediate PGE2 and BK-induced nerve depolarisation, cough, and activation of ganglia cells. In contrast, low pH-induced nerve depolarisation and ganglia cell activation was mediated via TRPV1 or Acid Sensing Ion Channels (ASICs); whereas, cough was partially attenuated with TRPA1 or TRPV1 antagonists. In summary, I have identified that TRPA1 and TRPV1 mediate PGE2 and BK-induced cough; and provided evidence that low pH-induced sensory nerve activation is mediated via TRPV1 and ASICs, but a role for TRPA1 is still unclear. These are exciting findings which add to our understanding of the mechanisms that drive the cough reflex in the healthy state; builds a base for investigating cough hypersensitivity in disease; and could help to guide the development of novel efficacious anti-tussive therapies

The Price Women Pay: Women\u27s Attachment to Work

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the world has created institutions that oppress and isolate women. The mother is often the most isolated and confined to the roles of her job- a job not considered productive in the traditional framework of economics. This research explores the structure of family and culture that has impacted the lives of women in the United States. Now education and generations of feminists have created new paths for women, but children have been the barrier to lasting labor force participation. The workforce has discriminated against women for years. As sentiments towards women’s participation turns positive, it becomes increasingly hard to ascertain what the discrimination is directed towards. Most of the discrimination in the workplace today is its inflexibility to accommodate mothers. The prospect that United States families have to support themselves financially has diminished in the last forty years and single mothers have faced the greatest burden. United States policy is not sufficient enough to provision for and secure the livelihood of low-income mothers requiring action. All women in order to be emancipated under a capitalist system require the means to provide for their family. To that end, policy must be changed to increase the feasibility of mothers working and provide for low-income families

See It & Believe It: Assessing Professional Behaviors and Clinical Reasoning with Video Assignments

See It & Believe It (Assessing Professional Behaviors & Clinical Reasoning with Video Assignments) Olive Branch Grace Johnson (UNMC), Megan Frazee (UNMC) Professional behaviors and clinical reasoning skills are developed through repetition, modeling and multiple exposures. We developed video assignments in physical therapy education that allow students to integrate didactic knowledge into clinical cases. These assignments require students to demonstrate appropriate professional behaviors, psychomotor skills and clinical reasoning required for physical therapy patient management. For all video assignments, students are required to upload their videos into Canvas, view the work of their peers and provide constructive feedback. These video assignments allow faculty to assess professional behaviors and clinical reasoning of students and facilitate student interaction between sites

See It & Believe It: Assessing Professional Behaviors and Clinical Reasoning with Video Assignments

See It & Believe It (Assessing Professional Behaviors & Clinical Reasoning with Video Assignments) Olive Branch Grace Johnson (UNMC), Megan Frazee (UNMC) Professional behaviors and clinical reasoning skills are developed through repetition, modeling and multiple exposures. We developed video assignments in physical therapy education that allow students to integrate didactic knowledge into clinical cases. These assignments require students to demonstrate appropriate professional behaviors, psychomotor skills and clinical reasoning required for physical therapy patient management. For all video assignments, students are required to upload their videos into Canvas, view the work of their peers and provide constructive feedback. These video assignments allow faculty to assess professional behaviors and clinical reasoning of students and facilitate student interaction between sites

Morphological and Geochemical Characteristics of Volcanic Ash: Insights into Eruption Energetics

Energetic volcanic eruptions are driven by early bubble nucleation. In some cases, during magmatic ascent, decompression rates near the vent become sufficiently high to oversaturate inter-bubble melt enough to trigger a second phase of nucleation. This process creates a bi-modal bubble size distribution: pre-eruptive (50-100 μm) and syn-eruptive (10-50 μm). A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to examine bubble imprints preserved in volcanic ash particles and determine an explosivity threshold, represented by the volcanic explosivity index (VEI), below which decompression rates are too slow for a second nucleation event to occur. This threshold is manifested in ash particles as a lack of syn-eruptive bubbles and was found to be between VEI 3 and 4. Furthermore, examination of ash from six eruptions (Redoubt, Spurr, Augustine, Okmok, Novarupta-Katmai, and St. Helens) indicates that eruptions with a higher VEI (e.g., Novarupta-Katmai, VEI 6) have a higher percent of observed particles displaying syn-eruptive bubbles than lower VEI eruptions (e.g., Redoubt, VEI 3). This may reflect a decompression rate gradient horizontally across the conduit during magmatic ascent. For eruptions with higher bulk decompression rates, a larger cross-sectional area of magma within the conduit was able to overcome the slowing force of shear created by this gradient, and decompress rapidly enough to nucleate syn-eruptive bubbles. Furthermore, Micro Raman data show the presence of water in ash from some eruptions (Spurr, Okmok), indicating that magmatic water is still present in some systems upon eruption, and also alluding to complex diffusion and nucleation mechanics. This study advances understanding of the relationship between eruptive products and eruption energetics; this provides a tool to better constrain eruption energetics of ancient eruptions, and thus to better characterize volcanic activity in the past in order to project it to eruption hazards in the future

Four GLOs Walk Into a Classroom: The Challenge of Supporting Critical Skill Growth

In this presentation, we outline the challenges faced when we adopted a LEAP-inspired general education curriculum with several critical skills as outcomes but created no support structure to deliver and foster them. Our General Learning Outcomes (GLOs) include writing, information literacy, speaking, and critical thinking; however, we had faculty leadership, expertise, and tutoring support only for writing. While writing assessment showed strong results and ultimately created curriculum change, the outsourced assessments of info lit, critical thinking, and speaking gave us widely divergent and unsatisfactory results. As one consequence, assessment efforts stalled in those areas. Looking at the successful development model established by faculty ownership of writing, we speculated--with some confidence--that because no faculty body was tasked with owning and fostering these essential skills, assessment results would continue to be substandard unless someone took charge. Thus, the partnership already existing between faculty in information literacy and writing took the lead and formed an ad hoc group to devise materials and support mechanisms for teaching and learning. Issues so far have included enhancing info lit support as a consequence of the revised ACRL Framework and its shifting conception of “research”; identifying willing faculty who have the requisite expertise in speaking and critical thinking; and identifying suitable opportunities for professional development. Our challenge now: how to move forward with this unprecedented grassroots initiative

Physics Attitude in Pre-Health Professions Students Upon Connecting Physics to the Medical Field

Collegiate physics professors have long been familiar with the issue of students’ attitudes towards the subject material. This is especially prevalent in pre-health professional students - non-majors - who are often required to take the introductory physics sequence as a part of entrance into a medical graduate program. This pilot study used a modified version of the Physics Attitude Scale (PAS) and modified questions from the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) to examine the attitudes of students going into a health-professions career. The objective of this study was to investigate if connecting physics to medical fields would result in a better attitude for pre-health professional students. The students were given the PAS survey to determine baseline attitude towards physics. One month later, a follow up was conducted. The students were given medical scenarios connecting physics with the medical field. Immediately after, the PAS survey was repeated to see if their attitudes would be different in pre- and post-survey. The findings indicate improvement in student attitudes towards physics upon connecting the discipline of physics to health professions

MOVING TOWARD A MORE SOCIALLY JUST CLASSROOM THROUGH TEACHER PREPARATION FOR INCLUSION

The current literature in teacher education for social justice fails to adequately address issues of disability within the equity discourse. In this paper, the authors advocate for a model of social justice teacher education that includes disability as part of the definition of marginalized groups by proposing the use of Response to Intervention (RTI) as a method for promoting inclusion into the social justice-oriented teacher preparation context