Symposium

Symposium: Student Journal of Science and Math gives a voice to an interdisciplinary field of undergraduate students performing exemplary work in scientific and mathematical projects. In every issue of Symposium, students will be able to share their engagement in science, scholarship, and research that demonstrates Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing custom and creates campus-wide scientific discussion. Symposium aspires to unite science and math based disciplines across campus, advance student research, and produce annual publications of student scholarship. Student contributors will submit a culmination of their research to a board of reviewers and Symposium’s editorial staff to prepare it for the publication process. At the end of the year, Symposium will assemble these works into a professional-grade journal available in print and online. We hope our project will enhance scientific literacy, composition, and communication among students of all disciplines.\u2

Policy Audit: Social Protection Policies and Urban Poor LBTs in the Philippines

LGBT discourses worldwide have tended to focus on marriage equality at the expense of other equally pressing but sometimes ‘less sexy’ concerns such as gender-based discrimination and violence, and poverty among sexual minorities. GALANG’s work with lesbians, bisexual women, and trans men (LBTs) living in urban slums indicates that while marriage is of course an important issue, it is hardly foremost in the minds of many Filipino LBTs who are systematically deprived of decent jobs, humane housing conditions, and adequate health care. Today, although Philippine law does not criminalise consensual same-sex acts and the principles of equality and non-discrimination are enshrined in the Constitution, homosexuality is policed by various social institutions, including the nuclear family and the Roman Catholic Church, which often eschew any sexual behaviour that takes place outside the context of marriage and family life. This policy audit seeks to: (1) identify and analyse the sexuality content of the selected social protection policies; (2) voice the concerns and experiences of LBTs living in GALANG’s partner urban poor communities in Quezon City; (3) share and communicate the findings of this audit with an eye towards influencing the conduct of donors and national and sub-national decision-makers, including mainstream activist organisations focusing on sexuality, social justice and feminism; (4) draw cross-cutting policy lessons that can inform future advocacy and policy development; and (5) stimulate others to replicate this analysis in their own settings.DFI

Secular changes and predictors of adult height for 86 105 male and female members of the Thai Cohort Study born between 1940 and 1990

Background Height trends can be useful indicators of population health but, despite Thailand's rapid socioeconomic development since the 1950s, few studies have examined accompanying secular changes in adult height or the effects of the transition on the heights of rural versus urban populations. This study therefore sought to document average heights in different age groups of rural and urban Thais and to investigate factors associated with attained height

Surgical approaches for lung volume reduction in emphysema

Lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is recommended in both British and international guidelines because trials have shown improvement in survival in selected patients with poor baseline exercise capacity and upper lobe-predominant emphysema. Despite this, few procedures are carried out, possibly because of historical concerns about high levels of morbidity and mortality associated with the operation. The authors reviewed data on lung volume reduction procedures at their institution between January 2000 and September 2012. There were no deaths within 90 days of unilateral LVRS (n=81), bullectomy (n=20) or intracavity drainage procedures (n=14). These data suggest that concerns about surgical mortality should not discourage LVRS in selected patients with COPD, provided that it is undertaken within a multidisciplinary team environment involving appropriate patient selection. © Royal College of Physicians 2014. All rights reserved

The LINC complex, mechanotransduction, and mesenchymal stem cell function and fate

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) show tremendous promise as a cell source for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, and are understood to be mechanosensitive to external mechanical environments. In recent years, increasing evidence points to nuclear envelope proteins as a key player in sensing and relaying mechanical signals in MSCs to modulate cellular form, function, and differentiation. Of particular interest is the Linker of Nucleoskeleton and Cytoskeleton (LINC) complex that includes nesprin and SUN. In this review, the way in which cells can sense external mechanical environments through an intact nuclear envelope and LINC complex proteins will be briefly described. Then, we will highlight the current body of literature on the role of the LINC complex in regulating MSC function and fate decision, without and with external mechanical loading conditions. Our review and suggested future perspective may provide a new insight into the understanding of MSC mechanobiology and related functional tissue engineering applications

Protein Kinase C α Is a Central Signaling Node and Therapeutic Target for Breast Cancer Stem Cells

The epithelial-mesenchymal transition program becomes activated during malignant progression and can enrich for cancer stem cells (CSCs). We report that inhibition of protein kinase C α (PKCα) specifically targets CSCs but has little effect on non-CSCs. The formation of CSCs from non-stem cells involves a shift from EGFR to PDGFR signaling and results in the PKCα-dependent activation of FRA1. We identified an AP-1 molecular switch in which c-FOS and FRA1 are preferentially utilized in non-CSCs and CSCs, respectively. PKCα and FRA1 expression is associated with the aggressive triple-negative breast cancers, and the depletion of FRA1 results in a mesenchymal-epithelial transition. Hence, identifying molecular features that shift between cell states can be exploited to target signaling components critical to CSCs.National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (Grant P01-CA080111)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01-CA078461