A handbook for using elder academy as a platform of other learning experiences

This handbook will discuss how school syllabus, Other Learning Experiences (OLE) and Elder Academy (EA) can be integrated. It will provide some structures for schools as a reference and help develop a comprehensive learning plan. Besides, the handbook will mention different roles and responsibilities of stakeholders, as well as the suggestions and guidelines for assessment. The programs and activities in the “Elder Academy at Lingnan” will be taken as examples to demonstrate the guidelines. This can provide a better understanding of the operation mode of the integration between school curricula, OLE and EA. Hence, interested stakeholders can perform their own plans more systematically and effectively.https://commons.ln.edu.hk/osl_book/1000/thumbnail.jp

A Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase/Protein Kinase B-independent Activation of Mammalian Target of Rapamycin Signaling Is Sufficient to Induce Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy

Overexpression of Rheb activates mTOR signaling via a PI3K/PKB-independent mechanism and is sufficient to induce skeletal muscle hypertrophy. The hypertrophic effects of Rheb are driven through a rapamycin-sensitive (RS) mechanism, mTOR is the RS element that confers the hypertrophy and the kinase activity of mTOR is necessary for this event

Novel insights into the regulation of skeletal muscle protein synthesis as revealed by a new nonradioactive in vivo technique

In this study, the principles of surface sensing of translation (SUnSET) were used to develop a nonradioactive method for ex vivo and in vivo measurements of protein synthesis (PS). Compared with controls, we first demonstrate excellent agreement between SUnSET and a [3H]phenylalanine method when detecting synergist ablation-induced increases in skeletal muscle PS ex vivo. We then show that SUnSET can detect the same synergist ablation-induced increase in PS when used in vivo (IV-SUnSET). In addition, IV-SUnSET detected food deprivation-induced decreases in PS in the heart, kidney, and skeletal muscles, with similar changes being visualized with an immunohistochemical version of IV-SUnSET (IV-IHC-SUnSET). By combining IV-IHC-SUnSET with in vivo transfection, we demonstrate that constitutively active PKB induces a robust increase in skeletal muscle PS. Furthermore, transfection with Ras homolog enriched in brain (Rheb) revealed that a PKB-independent activation of mammalian target of rapamycin is also sufficient to induce an increase in skeletal muscle PS. Finally, IV-IHC-SUnSET exposed the existence of fiber type-dependent differences in skeletal muscle PS, with PS in type 2B and 2X fibers being significantly lower than that in type 2A fibers within the same muscle. Thus, our nonradioactive method allowed us to accurately visualize and quantify PS under various ex vivo and in vivo conditions and revealed novel insights into the regulation of PS in skeletal muscle.—Goodman, C. A., Mabrey, D. M., Frey, J. W., Miu, M. H., Schmidt, E. K., Pierre, P., Hornberger, T. A. Novel insights into the regulation of skeletal muscle protein synthesis as revealed by a new nonradioactive in vivo technique