Introduction: Assuming a Critical Lens in Legal Studies: Reconciling Laws and Reality

Social justice and civil rights movements center on protecting and advancing the rights and interests of people across assumed and assigned identities, affinity groups, and socially constructed realities. They confront and demand reform and transformation of systems, structures, institutions, and laws that frustrate and foreclose social and racial justice. For the law to be relevant it must respond to shifting priorities and goals and to demands for change that emerge through and in response to these movements. The content and expression of law must be guided by inherent principles of equity, inclusion, and justice. Those currently in the legal profession and those preparing to enter it are engaging and learning the law during a syndemic, which is surfacing and intersecting with entrenched societal fissures and fault lines resulting from historic, pervasive, and continuing structural, systemic, and institutional inequality. The dynamic nature of the current reality shaped by a global pandemic, a racial reckoning, and unconscionable and unsustainable power, and resource inequities between people and communities urge us to reflect on the role of the law in creating, maintaining, and facilitating inequality. This moment also calls us to examine the responsibility of law to cure persisting inequality, to redress the injury it inflicts, and to curate a more equitable reality for all people

A palliative approach to care for people living with dementia: exploring perspectives from health and social care providers working in long-term care

Background: The number of Canadians living with dementia is rising as our population ages and is projected to reach 1.4 million people by 2031. Dementia is a terminal neurogenerative condition and is a major contributing factor to the transition into long-term care settings for many. Currently, most persons living in long-term care settings in Canada have a form of cognitive impairment or diagnosis of dementia, and most persons with dementia will die in a long-term care setting. A palliative approach to care that is appropriate for persons living with dementia in these settings is essential both now and in the future. However, research demonstrates that in Canada, end-of-life care and experiences are suboptimal for persons with dementia. Further, most Canadian long-term care homes do not have a formalized palliative care program and the integration of a palliative approach remains uncommon. There is growing international and Canadian interest in palliative approaches to care for persons with dementia and in long-term care settings, but there is a lack of Canadian research that provides a dementia-specific focus on palliative approaches in long-term care settings. Objectives: This qualitative descriptive study explored the perspectives of health and social care providers working in long-term care settings on the use and optimal delivery of a palliative approach to care for people with dementia living in long-term care settings. Specifically, this study examined the following research questions: (1) How is a palliative approach to care being used with persons with dementia who live in long-term care; (2) What are the perceptions of health and social care providers roles in supporting a palliative approach to care with persons with dementia; and (3) What contributes to an optimal palliative approach to care for people with dementia in long-term care? Methods: Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 health and social care providers who work with persons living with dementia in long-term care in Southern Ontario, Canada. Data were transcribed, anonymized, and analyzed using conventional content analysis in NVivo 12. Results: Of the 20 participants interviewed, their occupations included: activation manager, assistant director of care, dietary aide, nurse practitioner, occupational therapist, personal support worker, physician, recreational therapist, registered nurse, registered practical nurse, social worker, spiritual care provider. Five categories were identified through conventional content analysis: (1) Need for a Shared Understanding of a Palliative Approach to Care for Persons with Dementia; (2) Discussions About Goals of Care and the Future; (3) “End-of-Life Care” and Psychosocial, Grief, and Bereavement Support; (4) Need for Collaboration and Relationship-Based Care; and (5) Recommendations for an Optimal Palliative Approach to Care for Persons with Dementia. Conclusion: Study results highlight that while palliative principles are recognized as important for persons with dementia, and components of a palliative approach are being used, there is a clear need for a shared understanding amongst staff, as well as further integration of a palliative approach to dementia care in long-term care. Study participants also identified recommendations for an optimal palliative approach for persons with dementia in long-term care, including: (1) Clarify roles in supporting a palliative approach for persons with dementia; (2) Support staff with grief and bereavement; (3) Improve staffing and funding models to be appropriate for the care needs of persons with dementia; (4) Timely and consistent care planning discussions; (5) Improve the availability and quality of end-of-life resources; (6) Improve the built environment to better suit the needs of persons with dementia; and (7) Provide continuous and accessible care provider education. Results from this study indicate there is a need to support health and social care providers to enable a higher quality integrated palliative approach to care for persons with dementia and in the emotional labour of caring for persons with dementia who are dying

The effect of ratio and interval training on Pavlovian-instrumental transfer in mice.

Conditional stimuli (CS) that are paired with reward can be used to motivate instrumental responses. This process is called Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT). A recent study in rats suggested that habitual responses are particularly sensitive to the motivational effects of reward cues. The current experiments examined this idea using ratio and interval training in mice. Two groups of animals were trained to lever press for food pellets that were delivered on random ratio or random interval schedules. Devaluation tests revealed that interval training led to habitual responding while ratio training produced goal-directed actions. The presentation of CSs paired with reward led to positive transfer in both groups, however, the size of this effect was much larger in mice that were trained on interval schedules. This result suggests that habitual responses are more sensitive to the motivational influence of reward cues than goal-directed actions. The implications for neurobiological models of motivation and drug seeking behaviors are discussed

Another Sacrificed Lamb: Process of Making a Short Film

This presentation documents the process of making the short film Another Sacrificed Lamb.https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/aha_2015/1004/thumbnail.jp

The International Gene Trap Consortium Website: a portal to all publicly available gene trap cell lines in mouse

Gene trapping is a method of generating murine embryonic stem (ES) cell lines containing insertional mutations in known and novel genes. A number of international groups have used this approach to create sizeable public cell line repositories available to the scientific community for the generation of mutant mouse strains. The major gene trapping groups worldwide have recently joined together to centralize access to all publicly available gene trap lines by developing a user-oriented Website for the International Gene Trap Consortium (IGTC). This collaboration provides an impressive public informatics resource comprising ∼45 000 well-characterized ES cell lines which currently represent ∼40% of known mouse genes, all freely available for the creation of knockout mice on a non-collaborative basis. To standardize annotation and provide high confidence data for gene trap lines, a rigorous identification and annotation pipeline has been developed combining genomic localization and transcript alignment of gene trap sequence tags to identify trapped loci. This information is stored in a new bioinformatics database accessible through the IGTC Website interface. The IGTC Website () allows users to browse and search the database for trapped genes, BLAST sequences against gene trap sequence tags, and view trapped genes within biological pathways. In addition, IGTC data have been integrated into major genome browsers and bioinformatics sites to provide users with outside portals for viewing this data. The development of the IGTC Website marks a major advance by providing the research community with the data and tools necessary to effectively use public gene trap resources for the large-scale characterization of mammalian gene function

NKT cells coexpressing a GD2-specific chimeric antigen receptor and IL15 show enhanced in vivo persistence and antitumor activity against neuroblastoma

Purpose: Va24-invariant natural killer T cells (NKT) are attractive carriers for chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) due to their inherent antitumor properties and preferential localization to tumor sites. However, limited persistence of CAR-NKTs in tumor-bearing mice is associated with tumor recurrence. Here, we evaluated whether coexpression of the NKT homeostatic cytokine IL15 with a CAR enhances the in vivo persistence and therapeutic efficacy of CAR-NKTs. Experimental Design: Human primary NKTs were ex vivo expanded and transduced with CAR constructs containing an optimized GD2-specific single-chain variable fragment and either the CD28 or 4-1BB costimulatory endodomain, each with or without IL15 (GD2.CAR or GD2.CAR.15). Constructs that mediated robust CAR-NKT cell expansion were selected for further functional evaluation in vitro and in xenogeneic mouse models of neuroblastoma. Results: Coexpression of IL15 with either costimulatory domain increased CAR-NKT absolute numbers. However, constructs containing 4-1BB induced excessive activation-induced cell death and reduced numeric expansion of NKTs compared with respective CD28-based constructs. Further evaluation of CD28-based GD2.CAR and GD2. CAR.15 showed that coexpression of IL15 led to reduced expression levels of exhaustion markers in NKTs and increased multiround in vitro tumor cell killing. Following transfer into mice bearing neuroblastoma xenografts, GD2.CAR.15 NKTs demonstrated enhanced in vivo persistence, increased localization to tumor sites, and improved tumor control compared with GD2.CAR NKTs. Importantly, GD2.CAR.15 NKTs did not produce significant toxicity as determined by histopathologic analysis. Conclusions: Our results informed selection of the CD28-based GD2.CAR.15 construct for clinical testing and led to initiation of a first-in-human CAR-NKT cell clinical trial (NCT03294954)

Pathways from research to sustainable development: insights from ten research projects in sustainability and resilience

Drawing on collective experience from ten collaborative research projects focused on the Global South, we identify three major challenges that impede the translation of research on sustainability and resilience into better-informed choices by individuals and policy-makers that in turn can support transformation to a sustainable future. The three challenges comprise: (i) converting knowledge produced during research projects into successful knowledge application; (ii) scaling up knowledge in time when research projects are short-term and potential impacts are long-term; and (iii) scaling up knowledge across space, from local research sites to larger-scale or even global impact. Some potential pathways for funding agencies to overcome these challenges include providing targeted prolonged funding for dissemination and outreach, and facilitating collaboration and coordination across different sites, research teams, and partner organizations. By systematically documenting these challenges, we hope to pave the way for further innovations in the research cycle

The Lantern, 2015-2016

• Ghosts • Going to China • 98% Guaranteed • Constellation/Boulevard • Prayer • The Little One • Burning • The Amber Macaroon • Becoming • Requiem • Construction Site • Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Dragon • Charlie • No Sleep • A Lesson in Physical Education • Statues • Who Can Love a Black Woman? • Apples • Fun Craft • The Door at Midnight • Eve as a Book in the Bible • Boys • Diamond Heart • To Apollo • Joanne and Her July Garden • Option A, 1936 • Young White Girls, Hollow Bodies, and Home • Mama\u27s Stance on Sugar • The Mariana Trench • Hurricane • Part of the Job • Avenue H Blues • Hour of Nones • Send Toilet Paper • Grave Robbing • Wild Turkey • The Creek • Let\u27s Go for a Walk • Deaconess • Border of Love • Your Father, Rumpelstiltskin • Purchasing Poplars • Red Tatters • Sunken • Whispers • Existence • God Took a Cigarette Break with Police Officers • Martian Standoff • In the Headlights • It\u27s a Subtle Thing • Dear Kent • Hanako-san • A Brief Interlude • On Fencing, Gummy Worms, and my Inescapable Fear of Living in the Moment • Stolen Soul • Block • Mortem Mei Fratris • Kalki • Lake Placid • Atom and Eve • The Baerie Queene • Gladston • Soldiers at Gettysburg • Pattern • Foliage • Mass Media • Arrow • Move Out • Wanderers • Riverside Gardenhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1182/thumbnail.jp