Beyond Transactional Narratives of Agency: Peer Consultants’ Antiracist Professionalization

Social justice movements, especially Black Lives Matter, inspired many writing center administrators to reflect on their commitments to antiracism and engage with antiracist professional development with their staff. However, there is continued need to study the impact antiracist professional development has on writing center consultants’ ability to practice antiracism in sessions. This article presents a predominantly white institution (PWI) writing center’s attempt to do this work, with a particular emphasis on how antiracist professional development complicates portrayals of consultant agency within the writing center. The study analyzes qualitative data collected from consultants’ reflective writing, survey, and interview responses. Results illustrate that, in the context of enacting antiracism in and beyond the writing center, consultants showed messy, partial, and incomplete forms of agency with the professional development curriculum impacting consultants of color and white consultants differently. These findings suggest writing center studies must embrace an understanding of antiracist professional development that is reflective, fragmented, and iterative, and identify more concrete practices of antiracist consulting

Broad Repertoire of T Cell Autoreactivity Directly from Islets of Donors with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D)

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease characterized by the infiltration of lymphocytes into the insulin-producing β-cells in the pancreas. We have isolated live T cells sorted or grown directly from the isolated, handpicked islets of human donors with T1D. We received ~500 islet equivalent EQ of variable purity (10-90%) from 12 donors with T1D (disease duration 0.42-20 years) and from seven control donors and two donors with type 2 diabetes (T2D). A total of 321 T cell lines and clones were derived from the islets of donors with T1D (3 lines from the 9 control donors). These are 131 CD4+ lines and clones, 47 CD8+ lines and 143 lines that contain both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. From 50 lines and clones examined to date, we have determined the autoreactivity of 19 and have seen a broad repertoire of T cell autoreactivity in the islets, including characterized targets and post-translationally modified targets. Autoreactivity of CD4+ T cell lines was to three different peptides from glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 (GAD; GAD115-127, GAD274-286, GAD555-567), proinsulin76-90, and to chromogranin A or proinsulin expressed by DR4+DQ8+ B cells transduced with lentivirus containing constructs with the open reading frames corresponding to whole autoantigens. Reactivity to modified peptides included the glucose-regulated protein 78 and islet amyloid polypeptide with arginine to citrulline modifications (GRP78292-305(Arg-Cit297) and IAPP65-84(Arg-Cit 73, 81)), deaminations (IA-2545-562(Gln-Glu 548, 551, 556), and to several insulin hybrid peptides. These autoreactive CD4+ T cell lines and clones secreted only pro-inflammatory cytokines (IFN-γ, TNFα) upon peptide stimulation. For CD8+ T cells from islets, from one donor with T1D, we saw binding of a pool of HLA-A2 pentamers loaded with insulin B10-18, IA-2797-805 and insulin specific glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic subunit related protein, IGRP265-273. These results have implications for the development of successful prevention and reversal therapeutic strategies in T1D

Luxury brands consumption: The segment of “Chandlers”

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the segment of “chandlers” to the Russian academic society and to describe the specifics of their contemporary consumer behavior. The term “chandler” for this study was borrowed from American classical literature and applied to marketing. The study was conducted in April 2016 and comprised of two stages. The first stage was a series of in-depth interviews with seven representatives of the target audience from Moscow. It allowed to formulate the hypotheses which were proved/disproved by these hypotheses during the online survey. 117 relevant respondents were chosen for the study (72 — from Moscow, 45 — from regional city Ufa). The results allowed to formulate a preliminary conclusion there are no сhandlers in Ufa now. The most popular luxury brands for the Moscow сhandlers and specifics of their consumption were determined. This research is the first descriptive step to understanding the specifics of contemporary сhandlers — how they manage to consume luxury in the form of material artefacts and services, while being kept on a shoestring budget. The research entails a few limitations. The investigation comprised only a limited numbers of the respondents from Russian cities as Moscow and Ufa. In future, more consumers will be involved in the sample to cover more cities in Russia and respondents from other countries will be included. Upon the research completion a range of the recommendations has been provided to the luxury producers whose brands are already presented in Moscow and also for those who are planning to open their stores there. The results may serve as a guide for marketing tools development in the luxury industry. The originality of the paper lies in the term “chandlers’ segment” which is introduced in marketing theory for the first time

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Defining digital ethics when using eportfolios

This virtual panel session is a co-hosted event between AAEEBL and ePortfolios Australia to explore the topic of digital ethics and eportfolios. Panellists from both regions will draw on their own research and/or experience to discuss: What does digital ethics and eportfolios mean? What does digital ethics and eportfolios look like now?, and What does digital ethics and eportfolios look like when it is working well

Cathepsin-Mediated Alterations in TGFß-Related Signaling Underlie Disrupted Cartilage and Bone Maturation Associated With Impaired Lysosomal Targeting

International audienceHypersecretion of acid hydrolases is a hallmark feature of mucolipidosis II (MLII), a lysosomal storage disease caused by loss of carbohydrate-dependent lysosomal targeting. Inappropriate extracellular action of these hydrolases is proposed to contribute to skeletal pathogenesis, but the mechanisms that connect hydrolase activity to the onset of disease phenotypes remain poorly understood. Here we link extracellular cathepsin K activity to abnormal bone and cartilage development in MLII animals by demonstrating that it disrupts the balance of TGFß-related signaling during chondrogenesis. TGFß-like Smad2,3 signals are elevated and BMP-like Smad1,5,8 signals reduced in both feline and zebrafish MLII chondrocytes and osteoblasts, maintaining these cells in an immature state. Reducing either cathepsin K activity or expression of the transcriptional regulator Sox9a in MLII zebrafish significantly improved phenotypes. We further identify components of the large latent TGFß complex as novel targets of cathepsin K at neutral pH, providing a possible mechanism for enhanced Smad2,3 activation in vivo. These findings highlight the complexity of the skeletal disease associated with MLII and bring new insight to the role of secreted cathepsin proteases in cartilage development and growth factor regulation

Panoramic Ultrasound Measurement of the Vastus Medialis: A Validation Study with NASA

Background Quadriceps weakness and atrophy have been implicated in the pathogenesis of a variety of musculoskeletal conditions from knee osteoarthritis to patellofemoral pain syndrome. Quadriceps cross-sectional-area (CSA), and more specifically, vastus medialis (VM) CSA, has been shown to be an independent predictor of important clinical outcomes including pain and long-term function. Previous studies have used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as the gold standard to measure CSA, however there has been a recent expansion in research into the validity of ultrasound. Several groups have looked at larger muscle groups such as the entire quadriceps, but have reported variable accuracy with smaller muscles such as the VM. In partnership with NASA and the MMC physical therapy department, we set out to validate panoramic ultrasound measurements of the CSA of the distal VM compared to the gold standard, MRI, and to assess intra-and inter-rater reliability of ultrasound measurements using an existing NASA data set of matched images. Methods This validation study is a retrospective secondary analysis using US and MRI image pairs obtained from a 10-week study of non-weight-bearing adults conducted at a NASA facility. Both US and MRI images were acquired at multiple time points throughout the study from various locations on the right thigh. The most distal image of the thigh was used to outline the intermuscular border of the VM three times by each investigator to calculate CSA in both image modalities. Intraclass correlation coefficients, standard errors of the mean (SEM), and minimum detectable change were then calculated using SPSS software. Results Each investigator analyzed US and MRI image pairs from 24 participants in the parent study at a single time point. US demonstrated acceptable validity in measuring the CSA of the vastus medialis when compared against the gold standard, MRI with an Interclass Correlation (ICC) of 0.91 (95% CI -0.09-0.98) for researcher 1 and an ICC of 0.85 (95% CI -0.10-0.97) for researcher 2. The study showed acceptable inter-rater reliability for both MRI with an ICC of 0.97 (95% CI 0.70-0.99)) and US with an ICC of 0.98 (95% CI 0.95-0.99). The standard error of the mean (SEM) was calculated at 1.5 cm^2 and the minimum detectable change (MDC) was 4.15 cm^2. Bland-Altman plots were created and demonstrated acceptable agreement. Conclusions This study demonstrates that US is a valid and reliable tool to measure the CSA of the vastus medialis when compared to simultaneous measurements of the same subjects by MRI (gold standard). These measurements demonstrate acceptable criterion validity and inter-rater reliability. US offers a cost-effective means of measuring VM CSA, which can assist providers and physical therapists in determining the most appropriate plan of care for rehabilitation in the presence strength deficits