A Comparison of Risk-Taking Measures

Risk-taking is an important construct that correlates with many areas of study such as substance abuse, psychological disorders, life-span changes and military involvement. As risk- taking is such a broadly defined construct, there are many different means used to measure it. Ironically, there has never been a study done to see whether or not these measures are looking at the same type of risk-taking. Our study investigated the differences and similarities in three risk- taking measures, the Balloon Analogue Risk-Task (BART), the TCU Self-Rating Form and the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking scale (DOSPERT). We analyzed the results within each participant to see whether or not the same form of risk-taking was being evaluated by each measure. Our analysis shows that there are few correlations between the subscales of the BART, the TCU Self-Rating form and the DOSPERT, implying differences in the types of risk-taking being measured by each scale

Digital Inclusion in Detroit, Michigan: A Study of Community Leadership, Network Building, and Possibility of Closing the Digital Divide

The digital divide is described by technology experts and scholars as the disparity between digitally literate individuals with access to broadband internet and internet communications technologies (ICTs) and those who do not have access to ICTs nor possess digital skills. Approximately 19 million Americans, 6 percent of the population, are without reliable internet service. In Detroit, Michigan, approximately 40 percent of city residents live without an at home internet connection making it the most digitally disconnected city in the United States. Economic, social, and political factors have contributed to this high number of disconnected residents. Any resident affected by digital inequities faces daily challenges in accessing and navigating simple services. These inequities impact a Detroit resident's ability to find employment to provide for their family, a student's ability to complete a homework assignment, and an older citizen's ability to access healthcare services and pay their bills. Affected residents also miss out on being part of the political conversation. The digital divide can impact a resident's ability to access news, research political candidates, and register to vote for the first time. The digital divide must be understood as a spectrum, it is not binary. It is complex, manifested by a history of inequalities between countries, nations, and communities. Solutions in this space require a great deal of organizational collaboration, data gathering, and local expertise. Scholarly research has highlighted that grassroots efforts usually catalyze the solutions in this space, and local community nonprofits know the impacts for those most affected intimately and accurately. However, there is a scarcity of published academic work on the digital divide in Detroit particularly assessing the needs and work of residents and community leaders. We still don't know how these local change makers working in nonprofits, public sectors, and academia are viewing the digital divide. There is not much data on how they interact with one another or if their needs and behaviors share patterns. Lastly, we don't know how these stakeholders measure their success. This research seeks to begin to answer these questions using a primarily qualitative approach. I focus this work on local leadership in the non-profit and public sectors in Detroit. Based on qualitative research and secondary data collection through 8 interviews with community leaders, my research provides insight into how these leaders of the digital inclusion and equity efforts in Detroit see the current state of the digital divide, what they are doing about it, and what they believe they need to successfully reach their goals. These findings provide insights to what future collaborative efforts and relationships might look like as well as highlights suggestions and next steps for this work to continue.Master of Science in InformationSchool of Informationhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/168556/1/20201105_Lang,Brittany_Final_MTOP_Thesis.pd

Designing a Thoracic Compression and Posture Correction Device for Brass Musicians with Pharyngoceles: A Teaching Opportunity

Brass musicians exert high pressures throughout their bodies when playing, and overtime they can establish pharyngoceles. These are balloon-like protrusions that project through the wall of the pharynx and can over-stimulate the Vagus nerve. When this nerve is stressed, the brass musician can develop extreme pain, nausea and psychological distress. This condition was explored as a studio topic, for a senior level Product Design class. Students were tasked to innovate products for practice, performance or recovery, in an attempt to reduce the symptoms caused by the pharyngoceles

Thermal wake studies during the August 21st 2017 total solar eclipse

A thermal wake occurs when a high altitude balloon (HAB) influences and changes the surrounding ambient atmospheric temperature of the air through which it passes. This effect warms the air below the balloon to greater than ambient temperatures during daytime flights, and cooler than ambient temperatures during nighttime flights. The total solar eclipse of August 21st 2017, provided us with an opportunity to study these balloon induced temperature transitions from daytime, to eclipsed induced night conditions over the time scale of a single flight. To measure these transitions, St. Catherine University and the University of Minnesota, Morris, flew over 40 temperature sensors suspended beneath weather balloons ascending within the path of totality. Stratospheric temperature data collected during the eclipse show evidence of both daytime and nighttime wake temperature profiles

Citizen Science Terminology Matters: Exploring Key Terms

Much can be at stake depending on the choice of words used to describe citizen science, because terminology impacts how knowledge is developed. Citizen science is a quickly evolving field that is mobilizing people’s involvement in information development, social action and justice, and large-scale information gathering. Currently, a wide variety of terms and expressions are being used to refer to the concept of ‘citizen science’ and its practitioners. Here, we explore these terms to help provide guidance for the future growth of this field. We do this by reviewing the theoretical, historical, geopolitical, and disciplinary context of citizen science terminology; discussing what citizen science is and reviewing related terms; and providing a collection of potential terms and definitions for ‘citizen science’ and people participating in citizen science projects. This collection of terms was generated primarily from the broad knowledge base and on-the-ground experience of the authors, by recognizing the potential issues associated with various terms. While our examples may not be systematic or exhaustive, they are intended to be suggestive and invitational of future consideration. In our collective experience with citizen science projects, no single term is appropriate for all contexts. In a given citizen science project, we suggest that terms should be chosen carefully and their usage explained; direct communication with participants about how terminology affects them and what they would prefer to be called also should occur. We further recommend that a more systematic study of terminology trends in citizen science be conducted

Single-cell analysis of human glioma and immune cells identifies S100A4 as an immunotherapy target.

A major rate-limiting step in developing more effective immunotherapies for GBM is our inadequate understanding of the cellular complexity and the molecular heterogeneity of immune infiltrates in gliomas. Here, we report an integrated analysis of 201,986 human glioma, immune, and other stromal cells at the single cell level. In doing so, we discover extensive spatial and molecular heterogeneity in immune infiltrates. We identify molecular signatures for nine distinct myeloid cell subtypes, of which five are independent prognostic indicators of glioma patient survival. Furthermore, we identify S100A4 as a regulator of immune suppressive T and myeloid cells in GBM and demonstrate that deleting S100a4 in non-cancer cells is sufficient to reprogram the immune landscape and significantly improve survival. This study provides insights into spatial, molecular, and functional heterogeneity of glioma and glioma-associated immune cells and demonstrates the utility of this dataset for discovering therapeutic targets for this poorly immunogenic cancer

Neuronal sensitivity to TDP-43 overexpression is dependent on timing of induction

Ubiquitin-immunoreactive neuronal inclusions composed of TAR DNA binding protein of 43 kDa (TDP-43) are a major pathological feature of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD-TDP). In vivo studies with TDP-43 knockout mice have suggested that TDP-43 plays a critical, although undefined role in development. In the current report, we generated transgenic mice that conditionally express wild-type human TDP-43 (hTDP-43) in the forebrain and established a paradigm to examine the sensitivity of neurons to TDP-43 overexpression at different developmental stages. Continuous TDP-43 expression during early neuronal development produced a complex phenotype, including aggregation of phospho-TDP-43, increased ubiquitin immunoreactivity, mitochondrial abnormalities, neurodegeneration and early lethality. In contrast, later induction of hTDP-43 in the forebrain of weaned mice prevented early death and mitochondrial abnormalities while yielding salient features of FTLD-TDP, including progressive neurodegeneration and ubiquitinated, phospho-TDP-43 neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions. These results suggest that neurons in the developing forebrain are extremely sensitive to TDP-43 overexpression and that timing of TDP-43 overexpression in transgenic mice must be considered when distinguishing normal roles of TDP-43, particularly as they relate to development, from its pathogenic role in FTLD-TDP and other TDP-43 proteinopathies. Finally, our adult induction of hTDP-43 strategy provides a mouse model that develops critical pathological features that are directly relevant for human TDP-43 proteinopathies

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

The Somatic Genomic Landscape of Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinoma

We describe the landscape of somatic genomic alterations of 66 chromophobe renal cell carcinomas (ChRCCs) based on multidimensional and comprehensive characterization, including mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and whole genome sequencing. The result is consistent that ChRCC originates from the distal nephron compared to other kidney cancers with more proximal origins. Combined mtDNA and gene expression analysis implicates changes in mitochondrial function as a component of the disease biology, while suggesting alternative roles for mtDNA mutations in cancers relying on oxidative phosphorylation. Genomic rearrangements lead to recurrent structural breakpoints within TERT promoter region, which correlates with highly elevated TERT expression and manifestation of kataegis, representing a mechanism of TERT up-regulation in cancer distinct from previously-observed amplifications and point mutations

Genomic–transcriptomic evolution in lung cancer and metastasis

Intratumour heterogeneity (ITH) fuels lung cancer evolution, which leads to immune evasion and resistance to therapy. Here, using paired whole-exome and RNA sequencing data, we investigate intratumour transcriptomic diversity in 354 non-small cell lung cancer tumours from 347 out of the first 421 patients prospectively recruited into the TRACERx study. Analyses of 947 tumour regions, representing both primary and metastatic disease, alongside 96 tumour-adjacent normal tissue samples implicate the transcriptome as a major source of phenotypic variation. Gene expression levels and ITH relate to patterns of positive and negative selection during tumour evolution. We observe frequent copy number-independent allele-specific expression that is linked to epigenomic dysfunction. Allele-specific expression can also result in genomic–transcriptomic parallel evolution, which converges on cancer gene disruption. We extract signatures of RNA single-base substitutions and link their aetiology to the activity of the RNA-editing enzymes ADAR and APOBEC3A, thereby revealing otherwise undetected ongoing APOBEC activity in tumours. Characterizing the transcriptomes of primary–metastatic tumour pairs, we combine multiple machine-learning approaches that leverage genomic and transcriptomic variables to link metastasis-seeding potential to the evolutionary context of mutations and increased proliferation within primary tumour regions. These results highlight the interplay between the genome and transcriptome in influencing ITH, lung cancer evolution and metastasis