Remarks of Huntly Collins

Remarks by Huntly Collins , assistant professor of communication, as part of a symposium on Lasallian higher education in Philadelphia

Developing academic persistence in first year tertiary students: a case study

Teachers and researchers of undergraduate university students agree that the first year experience can have a major impact on later study participation and academic performance. Specifically, the transition to university study from school or other contexts requires that first year students demonstrate the characteristics of self-directed learners, as they enter an environment with minimal constraints and an expectation of self-motivation and individual effort. Art Costa (1991) identified several such characteristics that he terms habits of mind, suggesting that demonstration of these habits will enhance the academic success of learners. The aim of this research project was to identify teaching and learning strategies that have the potential to assist first year university students to persist at a task. Persistence is one of Costa’s habits, and is related to one of the Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education, recently adopted by Central Queensland University in the pursuit of enhanced teaching and learning outcomes for staff and students alike. This paper outlines the data gathered from a tutor of first year undergraduate teacher education students enrolled in a Queensland regional campus. The data presented here were gathered through a participant journal and an individual interview at the end of the term. Analysis of the data revealed that student persistence can be developed and enhanced through the use of teaching and learning strategies with a focus on explicit teacher talk, reflection on learning, shared experiences and positive feedback

Molecular Landscape of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Prognostic and Therapeutic Implications.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The field of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has been revolutionized in recent years by the advent of high-throughput techniques, such as next-generation sequencing. In this review, we will discuss some of the recently identified mutations that have defined a new molecular landscape in this disease, as well as their prognostic, predictive, and therapeutic implications. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent studies have shown how many cases of AML evolve from a premalignant period of latency characterized by the accumulation of several mutations and the emergence of one or multiple dominant clones. The pattern of co-occurring mutations and cytogenetic abnormalities at diagnosis defines risk and can determine therapeutic approaches to induce remission. Besides the genetic landscape at diagnosis, the continued presence of particular gene mutations during or after treatment carries prognostic information that should further influence strategies to maintain remission in the long term. The recent progress made in AML research is a seminal example of how basic science can translate into improving clinical practice. Our ability to characterize the genomic landscape of individual patients has not only improved our ability to diagnose and prognosticate but is also bringing the promise of precision medicine to fruition in the field

Set & Drift: National Security Models and Vietnam

For nearly a decade the United States was actively involved in a war halfway around the world in South Vietnam which cost her approximately 56,000 lives and $150 billion

Independence of epigenetic and genetic diversity in AML.

A new study provides the first insights into epigenetic heterogeneity in AML. The study highlights a striking independence of genetic and epigenetic variation, and links the kinetics of epigenetic change to clinical outcome.Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Mildred-Scheel OrganisationThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nm.413

Histone modifiers are oxygen sensors.

Hypoxia signals directly to chromatin via histone demethylases to alter gene expression</jats:p

Prognostic models turn the Heat(IT)up on FLT3ITD-mutated AML.

The presence of internal tandem duplications (ITDs) in the FLT3 receptor tyrosine kinase gene have long been known to confer a poor prognosis to acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. Now, specific structural features of the ITD are also suggested to alter patient outcome, including sensitivity to targeted therapies, prompting their evaluation in therapeutic algorithms.B.J.P. Huntly is supported by The European Research Council (COMAL: 647685) and Cancer Research UK (A25508). P. Gallipoli is supported by the Wellcome Trust (109967/Z/15/Z) and an ASH Global Research Award

The Lived and Living Bodies of Two Health and Physical Education Tertiary Educators: How Embodied Consciousness Highlighted the Importance of their Bodies in their Teaching Practice in HPE

This paper reports on narrative research that focuses on two tertiary Health and Physical Education (HPE) educators’ bodies. In particular, it explores how their lived encounters impacted upon their everyday teaching practice. Narrative accounts are used to present their lived and living bodies in this research. Findings suggest that they were enacting body pedagogies and embodied experiences in various ways influencing pedagogical practice and at times colliding with pre-service teachers’ bodies. ‘Embodied consciousness’ highlights an importance for all educators to better understand how their bodies are positioned and thus influence their practice. This research acknowledges the body as a site through which lived experience can be perpetuated and/or enacted in and through the living body

Acute myeloid leukemia: leukemia stem cells write a prognostic signature

In a recent interesting article, analysis of gene expression between phenotypically defined acute myeloid leukemia (AML) leukemia stem cells (LSCs) and more mature leukemia progenitor cells is used to generate a differentially expressed gene signature for LSCs. Through clever bioinformatic weighting analysis, the authors describe a method to convert this signature into a single score for any given sample and then test the prognostic utility of this 'LSC score' in publicly available gene expression profiles from bulk AML samples. They demonstrate that a high LSC score is associated with poor prognosis in AML patients and further demonstrate that the score is independent of known prognostic factors, including age, karyotype and mutation of the FLT3 or NPM1 genes. These findings are important and directly relate transcriptional dysregulation in AML LSCs with the outcome in patient samples, thus reinforcing the belief that these cellular populations are crucial for the initial propagation and subsequent relapse and resistance of leukemia