Designers and Deliverers: Undergraduate Students Co-Creating a Flipped & Blended College Course

Presented at the New England Faculty Development Consortium Fall Conference, November 19, 2021. Full article based on this presentation can be found here: Robert W. Maloy, Sharon A. Edwards, Alexandra Gearty, Katie Allan, Brendan Lee, Carly O’Connell, Meghan O’Rourke, Devon Wallman, Deven Ruberti, Madeline Hill, & Olivia Johnson (2022, Spring). “Designers and Deliverers: Undergraduate Students Co-Creating a Flipped & Blended College Course.” NEFDC Exchange, 36, 9-12</p

Internal validation of STRmix™ – A multi laboratory response to PCAST

We report a large compilation of the internal validations of the probabilistic genotyping software STRmix™. Thirty one laboratories contributed data resulting in 2825 mixtures comprising three to six donors and a wide range of multiplex, equipment, mixture proportions and templates. Previously reported trends in the LR were confirmed including less discriminatory LRs occurring both for donors and non-donors at low template (for the donor in question) and at high contributor number. We were unable to isolate an effect of allelic sharing. Any apparent effect appears to be largely confounded with increased contributor number

Thiopurine monotherapy is effective in ulcerative colitis but significantly less so in Crohn’s disease: long-term outcomes for 11 928 patients in the UK inflammatory bowel disease bioresource

Objective: Thiopurines are widely used as maintenance therapy in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) but the evidence base for their use is sparse and their role increasingly questioned. Using the largest series reported to date, we assessed the long-term effectiveness of thiopurines in ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD), including their impact on need for surgery. Design: Outcomes were assessed in 11 928 patients (4968 UC, 6960 CD) in the UK IBD BioResource initiated on thiopurine monotherapy with the intention of maintaining medically induced remission. Effectiveness was assessed retrospectively using patient-level data and a definition that required avoidance of escalation to biological therapy or surgery while on thiopurines. Analyses included overall effectiveness, time-to-event analysis for treatment escalation and comparison of surgery rates in patients tolerant or intolerant of thiopurines. Results: Using 68 132 patient-years of exposure, thiopurine monotherapy appeared effective for the duration of treatment in 2617/4968 (52.7%) patients with UC compared with 2378/6960 (34.2%) patients with CD (p<0.0001). This difference was corroborated in a multivariable analysis: after adjusting for variables including treatment era, thiopurine monotherapy was less effective in CD than UC (OR 0.47, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.51, p<0.0001). Thiopurine intolerance was associated with increased risk of surgery in UC (HR 2.44, p<0.0001); with a more modest impact on need for surgery in CD (HR=1.23, p=0.0015). Conclusion: Thiopurine monotherapy is an effective long-term treatment for UC but significantly less effective in CD

HLA-DQA1*05 carriage associated with development of anti-drug antibodies to infliximab and adalimumab in patients with Crohn's Disease

Anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapies are the most widely used biologic drugs for treating immune-mediated diseases, but repeated administration can induce the formation of anti-drug antibodies. The ability to identify patients at increased risk for development of anti-drug antibodies would facilitate selection of therapy and use of preventative strategies.This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on Publisher URL to access the full-text

A Possible Alignment Between the Orbits of Planetary Systems and their Visual Binary Companions

Astronomers do not have a complete picture of the effects of wide-binary companions (semimajor axes greater than 100 au) on the formation and evolution of exoplanets. We investigate these effects using new data from Gaia Early Data Release 3 and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission to characterize wide-binary systems with transiting exoplanets. We identify a sample of 67 systems of transiting exoplanet candidates (with well-determined, edge-on orbital inclinations) that reside in wide visual binary systems. We derive limits on orbital parameters for the wide-binary systems and measure the minimum difference in orbital inclination between the binary and planet orbits. We determine that there is statistically significant difference in the inclination distribution of wide-binary systems with transiting planets compared to a control sample, with the probability that the two distributions are the same being 0.0037. This implies that there is an overabundance of planets in binary systems whose orbits are aligned with those of the binary. The overabundance of aligned systems appears to primarily have semimajor axes less than 700 au. We investigate some effects that could cause the alignment and conclude that a torque caused by a misaligned binary companion on the protoplanetary disk is the most promising explanation

Wine and Wildlife: An Exploratory Study of the Depiction of Animals on Wine Labels Available in the United States

Wine labels that depict animal imagery could draw on consumers’ interest in wildlife and biodiversity, but this topic has received little attention. We document the frequency of the depiction of animals on a sample of wine labels available in the United States. We found that Johnson et al. Journal of Food Distribution Research November 2022 41 Volume 53, Issue 3 animals were depicted on 16.7% of labels overall. Birds and mammals were the most commonly depicted animals, and certain types of birds, especially hawks, eagles, owls, ducks, and birds in the crow family, were especially common. We suggest that animal depictions on wine labels could communicate environmental values attractive to consumer

Wine and Wildlife: An Exploratory Study of the Depiction of Animals on Wine Labels Available in the United States

Wine labels that depict animal imagery could draw on consumers’ interest in wildlife and biodiversity, but this topic has received little attention. We document the frequency of the depiction of animals on a sample of wine labels available in the United States. We found that Johnson et al. Journal of Food Distribution Research November 2022 41 Volume 53, Issue 3 animals were depicted on 16.7% of labels overall. Birds and mammals were the most commonly depicted animals, and certain types of birds, especially hawks, eagles, owls, ducks, and birds in the crow family, were especially common. We suggest that animal depictions on wine labels could communicate environmental values attractive to consumer