For Every Student, There Is a Book

In this session, participants will be introduced to a variety of students and be given lists of books/authors that Dr. Hunter has found her students just cannot put down. This is especially geared toward finding books for the students who do not usually read for pleasure

Firefighters Versus Law Enforcement Officers: A Comparison Of Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Firefighters (FF) and law enforcement officers (LEO) have heightened cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk due to the stressful nature of their occupations. Data suggest that 45% of on-duty FF fatalities are related to CVD, while LEO have a 1.7 times higher CVD prevalence compared to the general public. To our knowledge, studies comparing FF to LEO, in terms of CVD risk factors, have not been published. This information is necessary to better understand differences in occupational disease risk, as well as to help bridge the gap between stress and CVD markers. PURPOSE: To compare CVD risk biomarkers, fitness, and body composition between career FF and LEO. METHODS: Ninety-eight career, structural male FF (age = 35.1±9.6 yrs; weight = 94.3±15.4 kg; height = 178.4±13.2 cm) and seventy-three career male and female LEO (age = 41.4±9.0 yrs; weight = 92.3±16.8 kg; height = 179.6±8.1 cm) from local fire and police departments were studied. Participants completed a maximal cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPXT), where VO2max was estimated from the Foster equation. Fasted blood samples were collected to assess biomarkers of CVD risk: advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) and cortisol. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used to assess body composition and waist and hip measures were taken. Shapiro-Wilk Test was used to assess normality. Independent sample T-tests or non-parametric Mann-Whitney U tests (if normality was violated) were used to assess differences in CVD risk biomarkers, fitness, and body composition between the FF and LEO. Effect sizes were calculated as Cohen’s d (i.e., small [0.2-0.5], medium [0.5-0.8], large [\u3e0.8]). RESULTS: Firefighters had higher (p\u3c0.05) CPXT exercise times (FF: 10.9±1.6 min; LEO: 10.3±2.0 min; d=0.366) compared to LEO. While not statistically significant (p=0.64), FF had higher VO2max values (FF: 38.2±6.6 ml/kg/min; LEO: 36.2±6.2 ml/kg/min; d=0.306). Firefighters also had higher (p\u3c0.05) AOPP (FF: 134.8±90.1 mM; LEO: 106.8±67.6 mM; d=0.342), blood cortisol (FF: 14.2±5.0 mg/dL; LEO: 12.5±5.6 mg/dL; d=0.325), and waist-to-hip ratios (FF: 0.95±0.06; LEO: 0.89±0.08; d=0.792). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that while FF demonstrated greater CPXT time-to-exhaustion they also expressed greater levels of stress and risk for CVD compared to LEO

Library Monthly - May 2017

In this issue: A Salute to Our Graduating Seniors Library Survey Results Musicians and Injuries Evaluating Websites New Librarian Alert! Late Night Circulation Assistant Marisha Kellyhttps://spiral.lynn.edu/libpubs/1010/thumbnail.jp

Dynamics and functional diversity of the smallest phytoplankton on the Northeast US shelf

Author Posting. © National Academy of Sciences, 2020. This article is posted here by permission of National Academy of Sciences for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 117(22), (2020): 12215-12221, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1918439117.Picophytoplankton are the most abundant primary producers in the ocean. Knowledge of their community dynamics is key to understanding their role in marine food webs and global biogeochemical cycles. To this end, we analyzed a 16-y time series of observations of a phytoplankton community at a nearshore site on the Northeast US Shelf. We used a size-structured population model to estimate in situ division rates for the picoeukaryote assemblage and compared the dynamics with those of the picocyanobacteria Synechococcus at the same location. We found that the picoeukaryotes divide at roughly twice the rate of the more abundant Synechococcus and are subject to greater loss rates (likely from viral lysis and zooplankton grazing). We describe the dynamics of these groups across short and long timescales and conclude that, despite their taxonomic differences, their populations respond similarly to changes in the biotic and abiotic environment. Both groups appear to be temperature limited in the spring and light limited in the fall and to experience greater mortality during the day than at night. Compared with Synechococcus, the picoeukaryotes are subject to greater top-down control and contribute more to the region’s primary productivity than their standing stocks suggest.We thank E. T. Crockford, E. E. Peacock, J. Fredericks, Z. Sandwith, the MVCO Operations Team, and divers of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution diving program. This work was supported by NSF Grants OCE-0119915 (to R.J.O. and H.M.S.) and OCE-1655686 (to M.G.N., R.J.O., A.R.S., and H.M.O.); NASA Grants NNX11AF07G (to H.M.S.) and NNX13AC98G (to H.M.S.); Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Grant GGA#934 (to H.M.S.); and Simons Foundation Grant 561126 (to H.M.S.).2020-11-1

Skin Bacterial and Fungal Microbiome Responses to Diet Supplementation and Rewilding in the Critically Endangered Southern Corroboree Frog

The composition and dynamics of the skin bacterial and fungal microbiome is thought to influence host‐pathogen defence. This microbial community is shaped by host captivity, diet, and microbial interactions between bacterial and fungal components. However, there remains little understanding of how specific micronutrients influence bacterial and fungal microbiome composition and their inter‐domain interactions during rewilding of captive‐bred animals. This study experimentally investigated the effect of dietary beta‐carotene supplementation and subsequent field release on bacterial and fungal microbiome composition and dynamics using the Southern Corroboree frog (Pseudophryne corroboree) as a model system. We found large‐scale diversification of bacterial communities post‐release and similar diversification of fungal communities. The rewilded fungal mycobiome was more transient and demonstrated stronger temporal and micro‐spatial fluctuations than the bacterial microbiome. Accounting for temporal and spatial factors, we found strong residual associations between bacterial members, yet limited evidence for inter‐domain associations, suggesting that co‐occurrence patterns between bacterial and fungal communities are largely a result of shared responses to the environment rather than direct interactions. Lastly, we found supplementation of dietary beta‐carotene in captivity had no impact on post‐release microbiome diversity, yet was associated with approximately 15% of common bacterial and fungal genera. Our research demonstrates that environmental factors play a dominant role over dietary beta‐carotene supplementation in shaping microbiome diversity post‐release, and suggest inter‐domain interactions may also only exert a minor influence. Further research on the function and ecology of skin bacterial and fungal microbiomes will be crucial for developing strategies to support survival of endangered amphibian species

Downregulation of MALAT1 is a hallmark of tissue and peripheral proliferative T cells in COVID-19

T cells play key protective but also pathogenic roles in COVID-19. We studied the expression of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in COVID-19 T-cell transcriptomes by integrating previously published single-cell RNA sequencing datasets. The long intergenic non-coding RNA MALAT1 was the most highly transcribed lncRNA in T cells, with Th1 cells demonstrating the lowest and CD8+ resident memory cells the highest MALAT1 expression, amongst CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells populations, respectively. We then identified gene signatures that covaried with MALAT1 in single T cells. A significantly higher number of transcripts correlated negatively with MALAT1 than those that correlated. Enriched functional annotations of the MALAT1- anti-correlating gene signature included processes associated with T-cell activation such as cell division, oxidative phosphorylation, and response to cytokine. The MALAT1 anti-correlating gene signature shared by both CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells marked dividing T cells in both the lung and blood of COVID-19 patients. Focussing on the tissue, we used an independent patient cohort of post-mortem COVID-19 lung samples and demonstrated that MALAT1 suppression was indeed a marker of MKI67+ proliferating CD8+ T cells. Our results reveal MALAT1 suppression and its associated gene signature are a hallmark of human proliferating T cells

Odradek and the rethinking of political method in the work of art

While creating a large-scale transparency from a story by Kafka, Odradek, Táboritská 8, Prague, 18 July 1994, the artist Jeff Wall in his text ‘Gestus’ (1984) draws on Brecht's concept of gestus, which was concerned with freezing the action into a tableau vivant in order to cause the audience to reflect on the characters' and their own positions in economic and social relations. I propose to complicate this by considering the discussions between Benjamin, Brecht and Adorno around Kafka. In ‘Notes on Kafka’ (1953), Adorno writes, ‘The zone in which it is impossible to die is also the no-man’s-land between man and thing: within it meet Odradek.’ (Prisms). Adorno also remarks in that essay, ‘what would truly be history…has not yet begun’ (p.257). If Odradek is seen as outmoded, then it might also be thought of in relation to Benjamin’s conception of the Surrealist object. In the discussions Benjamin had with Brecht in the summer of 1934, Brecht was critical of Kafka’s ‘mystification’, and said that ‘Kafka’s outlook is that of a man caught under the wheels. Odradek is characteristic of this outlook…’ Benjamin makes what Brecht calls this ‘mystification’ into a positive quality of Kafka’s stories, which have the form of parables, but without the law or doctrine that would allow their decipherment. According to Hamacher gesture for Benjamin occupies a ‘cloudy spot’ of opacity and impossibility’. In Kafka, according to Benjamin, there is Umkehr, glossed by Weber as ‘“inversion,” reversal, or also, turnabout’. To work instrumentally towards the opening that Kafka gestures towards, would be to reinstitute precisely the continuum it interrupts. Odradek is the site of a displacement between different conceptions of art at a point where history hangs in the balance

Human microglia maturation is underpinned by specific gene regulatory networks.

Microglia phenotypes are highly regulated by the brain environment, but the transcriptional networks that specify the maturation of human microglia are poorly understood. Here, we characterized stage-specific transcriptomes and epigenetic landscapes of fetal and postnatal human microglia and acquired corresponding data in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived microglia, in cerebral organoids, and following engraftment into humanized mice. Parallel development of computational approaches that considered transcription factor (TF) co-occurrence and enhancer activity allowed prediction of shared and state-specific gene regulatory networks associated with fetal and postnatal microglia. Additionally, many features of the human fetal-to-postnatal transition were recapitulated in a time-dependent manner following the engraftment of iPSC cells into humanized mice. These data and accompanying computational approaches will facilitate further efforts to elucidate mechanisms by which human microglia acquire stage- and disease-specific phenotypes