2014 Reporting of Sexual Assault: Institutional Comparisons

Institutions of higher education are required to submit annual reports of sexual assault crimes to the Department of Education under the Clery Act. The Department of Education makes this data publicly available. Two primary measures are used to assess reporting of assault on campus: the Assault Reporting Ratio (ARR) and the Reporting Rate per 10,000 students (R10K). These measures are easily calculated and can be used to assess practices and policies that impact the reporting of sexual assault on campus. The ARR and R10K are rate comparisons, a method widely used in public health. These rate comparisons measure how close the institution is to reporting the anticipated number of assaults occurring on campus. Use of these measures allows comparisons between institutions and between years in the same institution. They serve as benchmarks to identify best practices and the impact of legal changes. The Assault Reporting Ratio compares the reported number of assaults to an estimate of the expected number of assaults. The expected estimate is based on gender-specific assault rates, and college-level (undergraduate or graduate) enrollment based on anonymous survey data. The ARR is expressed as a percentage. An ARR of 100% indicates that the school is counting all of the assaults predicted by national surveys. The R10K is the reported number of assaults per 10,000 students, calculated from the data provided by the institution. During 2014, 10,607,238 students were enrolled at 1,332 institutions, 82% undergraduates and 18% graduates. A total of 6,429 sexual assaults were reported for all institutions combined. A quarter of institutions (25.7% or 343 colleges) reported no sexual assaults. The summary statistics include all schools with zero reports. Overall, in 2014, there were 6 reports of sexual assault per 10,000 students (R10K measure). At individual colleges, the range of assault reports was from zero to 215 reports per 10,000 students with a median of 4 (10 IQR). The mean R10K was 9.5 (16.9 SD). The expected number of assaults in the same population was 282,399. The overall ARR for the country is the reported assaults (6,429) divided by the expected number of assaults (282,399). This figure, 2.3%, indicates that 97.7% of the expected assaults are not reported to the colleges. The median ARR was 1.6% and the mean ARR was 3.5%. The standardized measures can be used to evaluate institutional policies, changes in programs, and procedures for reports. Attachments include ranking of all institutions in analysis by each measure and Excel, and csv delimited data files

Manipulation of gene expression by an ecdysone-inducible gene switch in tumor xenografts

BACKGROUND: Rapid, robust and reversible induction of transgene expression would significantly facilitate cancer gene therapy as well as allow the in vivo functional study of newly discovered genes in tumor formation and progression. The popularity of the ecdysone inducible gene switch system has led us to investigate whether such a system can successfully regulate gene expression in a syngeneic tumor system in vivo. RESULTS: MBT-2 and Panc02 carcinoma cells were transfected with components of a modification of the ecdysone switch system driving firefly luciferase (F-Luc). In vitro luciferase expression ± ecdysone analog GS-E indicated a robust induction with minimal baseline activity and complete decay after 24 hours without drug. In vitro selection of MBT-2 transfected cell clones which had complete absence of F-Luc expression in the absence of stimulation but which expressed this gene at high levels in response to GS-E were chosen for in vivo evaluation. Tumors from engineered MBT-2 cells were grown to 5 mm in diameter prior to GS-E administration, animals euthanized and tumors removed at 6, 12 and 24 hours after GS-E administration and assayed for F-Luc activity. GS-E resulted in a maximal induction of F-Luc activity at 6 hours in tumor tissue with almost complete reversion to control levels by 12 hours. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first demonstration that robust and reversible transgene expression in tumors is feasible using the ecdysone system, allowing future rapid in vivo functional characterization of gene function or gene therapy applications

Regulation of smooth muscle α-actin expression and hypertrophy in cultured mesangial cells

Regulation of smooth muscle α-actin expression and hypertrophy in cultured mesangial cells.BackgroundMesangial cells during embryonic development and glomerular disease express smooth muscle α-actin (α-SMA). We were therefore surprised when cultured mesangial cells deprived of serum markedly increased expression of α-SMA. Serum-deprived mesangial cells appeared larger than serum-fed mesangial cells. We hypothesized that α-SMA expression may be more reflective of mesangial cell hypertrophy than hyperplasia.MethodsHuman mesangial cells were cultured in medium alone or with fetal bovine serum, thrombin, platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB) and/or transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1). α-SMA expression was examined by immunofluorescence, Western blot, and Northern blot analysis. Cell size was analyzed by forward light scatter flow cytometry.Resultsα-SMA mRNA was at least tenfold more abundant after three to five days in human mesangial cells plated without serum, but β-actin mRNA was unchanged. Serum-deprived cells contained 5.3-fold more α-SMA after three days and 56-fold more after five days by Western blot. Serum deprivation also increased α-SMA in rat and mouse mesangial cells. The effects of serum deprivation on α-SMA expression were reversible. Mesangial cell mitogens, thrombin or PDGF-BB, decreased α-SMA, but TGF-β1 increased α-SMA expression and slowed mesangial cell proliferation in serum-plus medium. Flow cytometry showed that serum deprivation or TGF-β1 treatment caused mesangial cell hypertrophy. PDGF-BB, thrombin, or thrombin receptor-activating peptide blocked hypertrophy in response to serum deprivation.ConclusionsWe conclude that increased α-SMA expression in mesangial cells reflects cellular hypertrophy rather than hyperplasia

Parenting young children with developmental disabilities: Experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.

High-stress events (e.g., natural disasters, political unrest, disease) significantly impact the lives of children and families. The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is one event that has brought numerous hardships to families and children with developmental disabilities (DD), likely exacerbating already heightened levels of stress. For this study, we interviewed mothers living in the U.S. (N = 14) of 2- to 8-year-old children with DD about how COVID-19 has affected their family life. The interviews examined how the pandemic impacted (a) their child’s educational, therapeutic, and medical services, (b) their stress and resiliency, and (c) their parenting role as an advocate, educator, and interventionist. The results of our thematic analysis of the qualitative data highlight four domains with themes that describe families’ experiences as indicated by the mothers interviewed. Voices of families are essential in the delivery of effective and ethical early intervention for young children with disabilities. Based on the data from these interviews with mothers, suggestions for family-focused intervention to support families during high-stress events are discussed. As the long-term effects of the pandemic remain unknown, suggestions for future research to continue to examine the impact of high-stress experiences on young children with DD and their families are also presented

Ulcerative colitis mucosal transcriptomes reveal mitochondriopathy and personalized mechanisms underlying disease severity and treatment response

© 2019, The Author(s). Molecular mechanisms driving disease course and response to therapy in ulcerative colitis (UC) are not well understood. Here, we use RNAseq to define pre-treatment rectal gene expression, and fecal microbiota profiles, in 206 pediatric UC patients receiving standardised therapy. We validate our key findings in adult and paediatric UC cohorts of 408 participants. We observe a marked suppression of mitochondrial genes and function across cohorts in active UC, and that increasing disease severity is notable for enrichment of adenoma/adenocarcinoma and innate immune genes. A subset of severity genes improves prediction of corticosteroid-induced remission in the discovery cohort; this gene signature is also associated with response to anti-TNFα and anti-α 4 β 7 integrin in adults. The severity and therapeutic response gene signatures were in turn associated with shifts in microbes previously implicated in mucosal homeostasis. Our data provide insights into UC pathogenesis, and may prioritise future therapies for nonresponders to current approaches

Effects of Standardized Ileal Digestible Histidine:Lysine Ratio on Growth Performance of 15- to 25-lb Pigs

Two experiments were conducted to determine the standardized ileal digestible (SID) His:Lys requirement of 15- to 25-lb nursery pigs. A total of 360 and 350 pigs (DNA 241 × 600), initially 15.6 and 14.5 lb body weight (BW), were used in Exp. 1 and 2, respectively. There were 5 pigs per pen and 12 and 10 replicates per treatment in Exp. 1 and 2, respectively. After weaning, pigs were fed a common pelleted diet for 10 d in Exp. 1 and 7 d in Exp. 2. Then, pens were assigned to treatments in a randomized complete block design with BW as the blocking factor. Dietary treatments consisted of SID His:Lys ratios of 24, 28, 32, 36, 40, and 44% in Exp. 1 and 24, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, and 42% in Exp. 2. Experimental diets were fed in pellet form for 10 d in Exp. 1 and 14 d in Exp. 2 followed by a common mash diet for 15 d in Exp. 1 and 14 d in Exp. 2. Data were analyzed using the GLIMMIX and NLMIXED procedures of SAS. Competing statistical models were quadratic polynomial (QP), broken-line linear (BLL), and broken-line quadratic (BLQ). In Exp. 1, increasing SID His:Lys increased (quadratic, P \u3c 0.001) average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and BW and improved (quadratic, P \u3c 0.001) feed-to-gain ratio (F/G). In Exp. 2, ADG increased (quadratic, P = 0.001) and F/G improved (quadratic, P = 0.001) and ADFI linearly increased (P = 0.001) with increasing SID His:Lys. The best-fitting model for all response variables analyzed was the BLL. In Exp. 1, requirement estimates were 29.7%, 29.1%, and 29.8% SID His:Lys for ADG, ADFI, and gain-to-feed ratio (G:F), respectively. In Exp. 2, the SID His:Lys requirements were estimated at 31.0% for ADG and 28.6% for G:F. These results suggest that the NRC may overestimate the SID His:Lys requirement for 15- to 25-lb pigs. Therefore, nursery diets can be formulated with higher inclusion of crystalline amino acids before His becomes limiting

Tear proteomic analysis of Sjogren syndrome patients with dry eye syndrome by two-dimensional-nano-liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry

We examined the tear film proteome of patients with Sjögren's syndrome (SS) and dry eye syndrome (group A), patients with dry eye symptoms (group B) and normal volunteers (group C). Tear samples were pooled from 8 subjects from each group and were subjected to two-dimensional-nano-liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (2D-nano-LC-MS/MS). The tear breakup time for group A was significantly reduced compared with group B and C (P < 0.001). Group A (Schirmer I test, 2.13 +/- 2.38 mm/5 min) had markedly lower tear volume than group B (5.94 +/- 4.75 mm/5 min) and C (14.44 +/- 6.57 mm/5 min) (P < 0.001). Group A had significantly higher normalized tear protein content (1.8291 +/- 0.2241 mu g/mm) than group B (1.0839 +/- 0.1120 mu g/mm) (P = 0.001) and C (0.2028 +/- 0.0177 mu g/mm) (P = 0.001). The 2D-nano-LC-MS/MS analysis identified a total of 435 proteins, including 182 (54.8%),247 (74.4%) and 278 (83.7%) in group A, B, and C, respectively, with 56 (16.7%) proteins including defensin alpha 1, clusterin and lactotransferrin unique to group A. In conclusion, dry eye syndrome in SS patients is associated with an altered proteomic profile with dysregulated expression of proteins involved in a variety of important cellular process including inflammation, immunity, and oxidative stress