Promoting sex and gender inclusivity in the classroom: A re-evaluation of discipline norms.

Creating curricula that are inclusive of sex and gender diverse students starts with redefining the classroom environment and how course materials are discussed. Such inclusive environments help increase diversity and representation in STEM. However, traditional approaches to teaching and the use of gendered language can reinforce unsupported notions regarding sex and gender. These notions persist throughout STEM and only serve to alienate our sex and gender diverse students and impact their safety. Thus, we have been exploring how best to approach the topics of sex and gender. Our context is in Biology, as our courses can explore the complexity of biological sex, why it is different from gender, and thus why transgender and non-binary individuals are part of natural variation instead of outliers. However, gendered language and misconceptions can appear in any discipline, in the terminology, metaphors, and examples given in class. In addition, all disciplines must consider how best to foster inclusivity among their students. In this presentation, we invite participants to share experiences and concerns regarding inclusivity in their classes, discuss case studies, and brainstorm with each other on how best to incorporate sex and gender awareness in their disciplines. Participants will come away with an appreciation for why sex and gender inclusivity is important, a framework for applying sex and gender inclusivity to their own curricula, a desire to learn more, and resources to help them on their journey

Modelling of Physical Ageing in starch using the TNM equation

Gelatinised wheat starch, freeze dried and equilibrated at different RH, was aged at different temperatures and for different times. The Tool–Narayanaswamy–Moynihan (TNM) model was used to describe the ageing for all samples under all conditions. Three TNM parameters: x, Dh⁄ and A were determined experimentally using, respectively, the peak shift method (x) and the dependency of T0f (the limiting value of Tf) on the cooling rate (Dh⁄ and A). The non-linearity parameter x and the non exponential parameter b were also estimated by optimising a fit of the experimental normalised specific heat at different ageing times and temperatures to curves generated using the TNM model. The TNM model successfully described the normalised experimental data. It was found that the intermolecular forces were strong and the relaxation times depended more strongly on the glass structure than the glass temperature. The hydration level of the starch had a direct impact of the breadth of the relaxation time distribution. A dependency of the non-linearity parameter x on ageing temperature (peak shift method) was observed. This suggests that physical ageing is more complex than is described by TNM formalism

A rapid application emissions-to-impacts tool for scenario assessment: Probabilistic Regional Impacts from Model patterns and Emissions (PRIME)

Climate policies evolve quickly, and new scenarios designed around these policies are used to illustrate how they impact global mean temperatures using simple climate models (or climate emulators). Simple climate models are extremely efficient although limited to showing only the global picture. Within the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) framework, there is a need to understand the regional impacts of scenarios that include the most recent science and policy decisions quickly to support government in negotiations. To address this, we present PRIME (Probabilistic Regional Impacts from Model patterns and Emissions), a new flexible probabilistic framework which aims to provide an efficient means to run new scenarios without the significant overheads of larger more complex Earth system models (ESMs). PRIME provides the capability to include the most recent models, science and scenarios to run ensemble simulations on multi-centennial timescales and include analysis of many variables that are relevant and important for impacts assessments. We use a simple climate model to provide the global temperatures to scale the patterns from a large number of the CMIP6 ESMs. These provide the inputs to a weather generator and a land-surface model, which generates an estimate of the land-surface impacts from the emissions scenarios. Here we test PRIME using known scenarios in the form of the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) to demonstrate that PRIME reproduces the climate response to a range of emissions scenarios, as shown in the IPCC reports. We show results for a range of scenarios including the SSP5-8.5 high emissions scenario, which was used to define the patterns; SSP1-2.6, a mitigation scenario with low emissions and SSP5-3.4-OS, an overshoot scenario. PRIME correctly represents the climate response for these known scenarios, which gives us confidence that PRIME will be useful for rapidly providing probabilistic spatially resolved information for novel climate scenarios; substantially reducing the time between the scenarios being released and being used in impacts assessments

Mouse hitchhiker mutants have spina bifida, dorso-ventral patterning defects and polydactyly: identification of Tulp3 as a novel negative regulator of the Sonic hedgehog pathway

The mammalian Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signalling pathway is essential for embryonic development and the patterning of multiple organs. Disruption or activation of Shh signalling leads to multiple birth defects, including holoprosencephaly, neural tube defects and polydactyly, and in adults results in tumours of the skin or central nervous system. Genetic approaches with model organisms continue to identify novel components of the pathway, including key molecules that function as positive or negative regulators of Shh signalling. Data presented here define Tulp3 as a novel negative regulator of the Shh pathway. We have identified a new mouse mutant that is a strongly hypomorphic allele of Tulp3 and which exhibits expansion of ventral markers in the caudal spinal cord, as well as neural tube defects and preaxial polydactyly, consistent with increased Shh signalling. We demonstrate that Tulp3 acts genetically downstream of Shh and Smoothened (Smo) in neural tube patterning and exhibits a genetic interaction with Gli3 in limb development. We show that Tulp3 does not appear to alter expression or processing of Gli3, and we demonstrate that transcriptional regulation of other negative regulators (Rab23, Fkbp8, Thm1, Sufu and PKA) is not affected. We discuss the possible mechanism of action of Tulp3 in Shh-mediated signalling in light of these new data

Telomerecat: A ploidy-agnostic method for estimating telomere length from whole genome sequencing data.

Telomere length is a risk factor in disease and the dynamics of telomere length are crucial to our understanding of cell replication and vitality. The proliferation of whole genome sequencing represents an unprecedented opportunity to glean new insights into telomere biology on a previously unimaginable scale. To this end, a number of approaches for estimating telomere length from whole-genome sequencing data have been proposed. Here we present Telomerecat, a novel approach to the estimation of telomere length. Previous methods have been dependent on the number of telomeres present in a cell being known, which may be problematic when analysing aneuploid cancer data and non-human samples. Telomerecat is designed to be agnostic to the number of telomeres present, making it suited for the purpose of estimating telomere length in cancer studies. Telomerecat also accounts for interstitial telomeric reads and presents a novel approach to dealing with sequencing errors. We show that Telomerecat performs well at telomere length estimation when compared to leading experimental and computational methods. Furthermore, we show that it detects expected patterns in longitudinal data, repeated measurements, and cross-species comparisons. We also apply the method to a cancer cell data, uncovering an interesting relationship with the underlying telomerase genotype

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

The impact of immediate breast reconstruction on the time to delivery of adjuvant therapy: the iBRA-2 study

Background: Immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) is routinely offered to improve quality-of-life for women requiring mastectomy, but there are concerns that more complex surgery may delay adjuvant oncological treatments and compromise long-term outcomes. High-quality evidence is lacking. The iBRA-2 study aimed to investigate the impact of IBR on time to adjuvant therapy. Methods: Consecutive women undergoing mastectomy ± IBR for breast cancer July–December, 2016 were included. Patient demographics, operative, oncological and complication data were collected. Time from last definitive cancer surgery to first adjuvant treatment for patients undergoing mastectomy ± IBR were compared and risk factors associated with delays explored. Results: A total of 2540 patients were recruited from 76 centres; 1008 (39.7%) underwent IBR (implant-only [n = 675, 26.6%]; pedicled flaps [n = 105,4.1%] and free-flaps [n = 228, 8.9%]). Complications requiring re-admission or re-operation were significantly more common in patients undergoing IBR than those receiving mastectomy. Adjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy was required by 1235 (48.6%) patients. No clinically significant differences were seen in time to adjuvant therapy between patient groups but major complications irrespective of surgery received were significantly associated with treatment delays. Conclusions: IBR does not result in clinically significant delays to adjuvant therapy, but post-operative complications are associated with treatment delays. Strategies to minimise complications, including careful patient selection, are required to improve outcomes for patients

The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.Comment: 5th version as accepted to PASP; 31 pages, 18 figures; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/acb29

Publisher Correction: Telomerecat: A ploidy-agnostic method for estimating telomere length from whole genome sequencing data.

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