Viral Networks: Connecting Digital Humanities and Medical History

This volume of original essays explores the power of network thinking and analysis for humanities research. Contributing authors are all scholars whose research focuses on a medical history topic—from the Black Death in fourteenth-century Provence to psychiatric hospitals in twentieth-century Alabama. The chapters take readers through a variety of situations in which scholars must determine if network analysis is right for their research; and, if the answer is yes, what the possibilities are for implementation. Along the way, readers will find practical tips on identifying an appropriate network to analyze, finding the best way to apply network analysis, and choosing the right tools for data visualization. All the chapters in this volume grew out of the 2018 Viral Networks workshop, hosted by the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine (NIH), funded by the Office of Digital Humanities of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and organized by Virginia Tech

Behavioral deficits, early gliosis, dysmyelination and synaptic dysfunction in a mouse model of mucolipidosis IV

Mucolipidosis IV (MLIV) is caused by mutations in the gene MCOLN1. Patients with MLIV have severe neurologic deficits and very little is known about the brain pathology in this lysosomal disease. Using an accurate mouse model of mucolipidosis IV, we observed early behavioral deficits which were accompanied by activation of microglia and astrocytes. The glial activation that persisted during the course of disease was not accompanied by neuronal loss even at the late stage. In vivo [Ca2+]-imaging revealed no changes in resting [Ca2+] levels in Mcoln1−/− cortical neurons, implying their physiological health. Despite the absence of neuron loss, we observed alterations in synaptic plasticity, as indicated by elevated paired-pulse facilitation and enhanced long-term potentiation. Myelination deficits and severely dysmorphic corpus callosum were present early and resembled white matter pathology in mucolipidosis IV patients. These results indicate the early involvement of glia, and challenge the traditional view of mucolipidosis IV as an overtly neurodegenerative condition. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40478-014-0133-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Effective MUGs: A Grammar Curriculum for Basic Writers

The purpose of this study was to design a grammar curriculum that could help college age students in basic writing classes to identify and correct grammatical errors in their own writing. After reviewing literature in best practices in grammar instruction as well as other kinds of instructional best practices, the grammar curriculum, Effective MUGs (MUGs stands for mechanics, usage, and grammar), takes advantage of these best practices including sentence combining, sentence revision, sentence creation, grammar in context, strategies instruction, and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). The study was designed to measure how effective the grammar curriculum was (by examining student writing in essays as well as grammar exercises), how students used tools in the curriculum (by examining results from cognition labs), and how students and instructors perceived the curriculum (through interviews). The data on student grammatical error from this study must be viewed with reservations because of the lack of statistical significance. The most significant findings were qualitative and offered insight into the strengths of the Effective MUGs curriculum as well as which aspects that need revision. Both students and instructors thought that the gradual release of strategies instruction was one of the most effective tools and they both enjoyed using BYOD in conjunction with Google Docs. Students were most challenged by subject-verb identification and feeling confident about use of unfamiliar sentence elements; instructor interviews confirmed these student challenges. The data from the study will prompt revision to the curriculum as well as enhanced professional development

Effective MUGs: a grammar curriculum for basic writers

MacArthur, Charles A.The purpose of this study was to design a grammar curriculum that could help college age students in basic writing classes to identify and correct grammatical errors in their own writing. After reviewing literature in best practices in grammar instruction as well as other kinds of instructional best practices, the grammar curriculum, Effective MUGs (MUGs stands for mechanics, usage, and grammar), takes advantage of these best practices including sentence combining, sentence revision, sentence creation, grammar in context, strategies instruction, and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). The study was designed to measure how effective the grammar curriculum was (by examining student writing in essays as well as grammar exercises), how students used tools in the curriculum (by examining results from cognition labs), and how students and instructors perceived the curriculum (through interviews). The data on student grammatical error from this study must be viewed with reservations because of the lack of statistical significance. The most significant findings were qualitative and offered insight into the strengths of the Effective MUGs curriculum as well as which aspects that need revision. Both students and instructors thought that the gradual release of strategies instruction was one of the most effective tools and they both enjoyed using BYOD in conjunction with Google Docs. Students were most challenged by subject-verb identification and feeling confident about use of unfamiliar sentence elements; instructor interviews confirmed these student challenges. The data from the study will prompt revision to the curriculum as well as enhanced professional development.University of Delaware, School of EducationD.Ed

Behavioral deficits, early gliosis, dysmyelination and synaptic dysfunction in a mouse model of mucolipidosis IV.

Mucolipidosis IV (MLIV) is caused by mutations in the gene MCOLN1. Patients with MLIV have severe neurologic deficits and very little is known about the brain pathology in this lysosomal disease. Using an accurate mouse model of mucolipidosis IV, we observed early behavioral deficits which were accompanied by activation of microglia and astrocytes. The glial activation that persisted during the course of disease was not accompanied by neuronal loss even at the late stage. In vivo [Ca(2+)]-imaging revealed no changes in resting [Ca(2+)] levels in Mcoln1(-/-) cortical neurons, implying their physiological health. Despite the absence of neuron loss, we observed alterations in synaptic plasticity, as indicated by elevated paired-pulse facilitation and enhanced long-term potentiation. Myelination deficits and severely dysmorphic corpus callosum were present early and resembled white matter pathology in mucolipidosis IV patients. These results indicate the early involvement of glia, and challenge the traditional view of mucolipidosis IV as an overtly neurodegenerative condition

SARS-CoV-2 infection of African green monkeys results in mild respiratory disease discernible by PET/CT imaging and shedding of infectious virus from both respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts.

Vaccines are urgently needed to combat the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and testing of candidate vaccines in an appropriate non-human primate (NHP) model is a critical step in the process. Infection of African green monkeys (AGM) with a low passage human isolate of SARS-CoV-2 by aerosol or mucosal exposure resulted in mild clinical infection with a transient decrease in lung tidal volume. Imaging with human clinical-grade 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET) co-registered with computed tomography (CT) revealed pulmonary lesions at 4 days post-infection (dpi) that resolved over time. Infectious virus was shed from both respiratory and gastrointestinal (GI) tracts in all animals in a biphasic manner, first between 2-7 dpi followed by a recrudescence at 14-21 dpi. Viral RNA (vRNA) was found throughout both respiratory and gastrointestinal systems at necropsy with higher levels of vRNA found within the GI tract tissues. All animals seroconverted simultaneously for IgM and IgG, which has also been documented in human COVID-19 cases. Young AGM represent an species to study mild/subclinical COVID-19 disease and with possible insights into live virus shedding. Future vaccine evaluation can be performed in AGM with correlates of efficacy being lung lesions by PET/CT, virus shedding, and tissue viral load