Eyes Toward the Future: Framing For-credit Information Literacy Instruction

LSU Libraries recently redesigned its one-credit hour information literacy course taught by librarians for undergraduate students. This redesign coincided with a shift from face-to-face to online course delivery at a local level alongside the implementation of the University’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) on undergraduate research that would lead to increased course enrollment at the university level. At the national level, there was a transition to ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Framework). The Libraries’ Instruction Committee engaged in a holistic reconceptualization of the course, beginning with debating and designing new student learning outcomes (SLOs) and attributes before considering content and assessment. Although for-credit courses provide librarians with an avenue to impact information literacy growth more deeply than a single instruction session (commonly referred to as a “one-shot”), these courses are increasingly rare. Nonetheless, the Framework represents an opportunity for librarians to redesign existing instruction on small and large scale

The impact of parity on life course blood pressure trajectories:the HUNT study in Norway

The drop in blood pressure during pregnancy may persist postpartum, but the impact of pregnancy on blood pressure across the life course is not known. In this study we examined blood pressure trajectories for women in the years preceding and following pregnancy and compared life course trajectories of blood pressure for parous and nulliparous women. We linked information on all women who participated in the population-based, longitudinal HUNT Study, Norway with pregnancy information from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. A total of 23,438 women were included with up to 3 blood pressure measurements per woman. Blood pressure trajectories were compared using a mixed effects linear spline model. Before first pregnancy, women who later gave birth had similar mean blood pressure to women who never gave birth. Women who delivered experienced a drop after their first birth of − 3.32 mmHg (95% CI, − 3.93, − 2.71) and − 1.98 mmHg (95% CI, − 2.43, − 1.53) in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, respectively. Subsequent pregnancies were associated with smaller reductions. These pregnancy-related reductions in blood pressure led to persistent differences in mean blood pressure, and at age 50, parous women still had lower systolic (− 1.93 mmHg; 95% CI, − 3.33, − 0.53) and diastolic (− 1.36 mmHg; 95% CI, − 2.26, − 0.46) blood pressure compared to nulliparous women. The findings suggest that the first pregnancy and, to a lesser extent, successive pregnancies are associated with lasting and clinically relevant reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure.acceptedVersion© The Author(s) 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made

Life course trajectories of cardiovascular risk factors in women with and without hypertensive disorders in first pregnancy:The HUNT study in Norway

Background: Women with hypertensive pregnancy disorders have adverse levels of cardiovascular risk factors. It is unclear how this adverse risk factor profile evolves during adult life. We compared life course trajectories of cardiovascular risk factors in women with preeclampsia or gestational hypertension in their first pregnancy to normotensive women. Methods and Results: We linked information on cardiovascular risk factors from the population‐based HUNT (Nord‐Trøndelag Health Study) surveys with pregnancy information from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Trajectories of cardiovascular risk factors were constructed for 22 308 women with a normotensive first pregnancy; 1092 with preeclampsia, and 478 with gestational hypertension in first pregnancy. Already before first pregnancy, women with preeclampsia in their first pregnancy had higher measures of adiposity, blood pressure, heart rate, and serum lipids and glucose compared with women with a normotensive first pregnancy. After first pregnancy, there was a parallel development in cardiovascular risk factor levels, but women with a normotensive first pregnancy had a time lag of >10 years compared with the preeclampsia group. There were no clear differences in risk factor trajectories between women with gestational hypertension and women with preeclampsia. Conclusions: Women with hypertensive pregnancy disorders in their first pregnancy had an adverse cardiovascular risk factor profile before pregnancy compared with normotensive women, and the differences persisted beyond 50 years of age. Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy signal long‐term increases in modifiable cardiovascular risk factors, and may be used to identify women who would benefit from early prevention strategies

Does Pregnancy Alter Life Course Lipid Trajectories?:Evidence from the HUNT Study in Norway

We examined the association between pregnancy and life-course lipid trajectories. Linked data from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study and the Medical Birth Registry of Norway yielded 19,987 parous and 1,625 nulliparous women. Using mixed-effects spline models, we estimated differences in nonfasting lipid levels from before to after first birth in parous women and between parous and nulliparous women. HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) dropped by −4.2 mg/dl (95% CI: −5.0, −3.3) from before to after first birth in adjusted models, a 7% change, and the total cholesterol (TC) to HDL-C ratio increased by 0.18 (95% CI: 0.11, 0.25), with no change in non-HDL-C or triglycerides. Changes in HDL-C and the TC/HDL-C ratio associated with pregnancy persisted for decades, leading to altered life-course lipid trajectories. For example, parous women had a lower HDL-C than nulliparous women at the age of 50 years (−1.4 mg/dl; 95% CI: −2.3, −0.4). Adverse changes in lipids were greatest after first birth, with small changes after subsequent births, and were larger in women who did not breastfeed. Findings suggest that pregnancy is associated with long-lasting adverse changes in HDL-C, potentially setting parous women on a more atherogenic trajectory than prior to pregnancy

Characterization of the apoptotic response of human leukemia cells to organosulfur compounds

Background: Novel therapeutic agents that selectively induce tumor cell death are urgently needed in the clinical management of cancers. Such agents would constitute effective adjuvant approaches to traditional chemotherapy regimens. Organosulfur compounds (OSCs), such as diallyl disulfide, have demonstrated anti-proliferative effects on cancer cells. We have previously shown that synthesized relatives of dysoxysulfone, a natural OSC derived from the Fijian medicinal plant, Dysoxylum richi, possess tumor-specific antiproliferative effects and are thus promising lead candidates. Methods: Because our structure-activity analyses showed that regions flanking the disulfide bond mediated specificity, we synthesized 18 novel OSCs by structural modification of the most promising dysoxysulfone derivatives. These compounds were tested for anti-proliferative and apoptotic activity in both normal and leukemic cells. Results: Six OSCs exhibited tumor-specific killing, having no effect on normal bone marrow, and are thus candidates for future toxicity studies. We then employed mRNA expression profiling to characterize the mechanisms by which different OSCs induce apoptosis. Using Gene Ontology analysis we show that each OSC altered a unique set of pathways, and that these differences could be partially rationalized from a transcription factor binding site analysis. For example, five compounds altered genes with a large enrichment of p53 binding sites in their promoter regions (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Taken together, these data establish OSCs derivatized from dysoxysulfone as a novel group of compounds for development as anti-cancer agents

Measurement of inclusive D*+- and associated dijet cross sections in photoproduction at HERA

Inclusive photoproduction of D*+- mesons has been measured for photon-proton centre-of-mass energies in the range 130 < W < 280 GeV and a photon virtuality Q^2 < 1 GeV^2. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 37 pb^-1. Total and differential cross sections as functions of the D* transverse momentum and pseudorapidity are presented in restricted kinematical regions and the data are compared with next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD calculations using the "massive charm" and "massless charm" schemes. The measured cross sections are generally above the NLO calculations, in particular in the forward (proton) direction. The large data sample also allows the study of dijet production associated with charm. A significant resolved as well as a direct photon component contribute to the cross section. Leading order QCD Monte Carlo calculations indicate that the resolved contribution arises from a significant charm component in the photon. A massive charm NLO parton level calculation yields lower cross sections compared to the measured results in a kinematic region where the resolved photon contribution is significant.Comment: 32 pages including 6 figure

Measurement of Jet Shapes in Photoproduction at HERA

The shape of jets produced in quasi-real photon-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies in the range $134-277$ GeV has been measured using the hadronic energy flow. The measurement was done with the ZEUS detector at HERA. Jets are identified using a cone algorithm in the $\eta - \phi$ plane with a cone radius of one unit. Measured jet shapes both in inclusive jet and dijet production with transverse energies $E^{jet}_T>14$ GeV are presented. The jet shape broadens as the jet pseudorapidity ($\eta^{jet}$) increases and narrows as $E^{jet}_T$ increases. In dijet photoproduction, the jet shapes have been measured separately for samples dominated by resolved and by direct processes. Leading-logarithm parton-shower Monte Carlo calculations of resolved and direct processes describe well the measured jet shapes except for the inclusive production of jets with high $\eta^{jet}$ and low $E^{jet}_T$. The observed broadening of the jet shape as $\eta^{jet}$ increases is consistent with the predicted increase in the fraction of final state gluon jets.Comment: 29 pages including 9 figure

Genetic variant effects on gene expression in human pancreatic islets and their implications for T2D

Most signals detected by genome-wide association studies map to non-coding sequence and their tissue-specific effects influence transcriptional regulation. However, key tissues and cell-types required for functional inference are absent from large-scale resources. Here we explore the relationship between genetic variants influencing predisposition to type 2 diabetes (T2D) and related glycemic traits, and human pancreatic islet transcription using data from 420 donors. We find: (a) 7741 cis-eQTLs in islets with a replication rate across 44 GTEx tissues between 40% and 73%; (b) marked overlap between islet cis-eQTL signals and active regulatory sequences in islets, with reduced eQTL effect size observed in the stretch enhancers most strongly implicated in GWAS signal location; (c) enrichment of islet cis-eQTL signals with T2D risk variants identified in genome-wide association studies; and (d) colocalization between 47 islet cis-eQTLs and variants influencing T2D or glycemic traits, including DGKB and TCF7L2. Our findings illustrate the advantages of performing functional and regulatory studies in disease relevant tissues.Peer reviewe