Sleep dysfunction and EEG alterations in mice overexpressing alpha-synuclein.

BackgroundSleep disruptions occur early and frequently in Parkinson's disease (PD). PD patients also show a slowing of resting state activity. Alpha-synuclein is causally linked to PD and accumulates in sleep-related brain regions. While sleep problems occur in over 75% of PD patients and severely impact the quality of life of patients and caregivers, their study is limited by a paucity of adequate animal models.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to determine whether overexpression of wildtype alpha-synuclein could lead to alterations in sleep patterns reminiscent of those observed in PD by measuring sleep/wake activity with rigorous quantitative methods in a well-characterized genetic mouse model.MethodsAt 10 months of age, mice expressing human wildtype alpha-synuclein under the Thy-1 promoter (Thy1-aSyn) and wildtype littermates underwent the subcutaneous implantation of a telemetry device (Data Sciences International) for the recording of electromyograms (EMG) and electroencephalograms (EEG) in freely moving animals. Surgeries and data collection were performed without knowledge of mouse genotype.ResultsThy1-aSyn mice showed increased non-rapid eye movement sleep during their quiescent phase, increased active wake during their active phase, and decreased rapid eye movement sleep over a 24-h period, as well as a shift in the density of their EEG power spectra toward lower frequencies with a significant decrease in gamma power during wakefulness.ConclusionsAlpha-synuclein overexpression in mice produces sleep disruptions and altered oscillatory EEG activity reminiscent of PD, and this model provides a novel platform to assess mechanisms and therapeutic strategies for sleep dysfunction in PD

Parent Involvement in Pre-Kindergarten and the Effects on Student Achievement

An ever-present achievement gap has been found among students and their peers. Educational research and literature have found that the growing gap is due in part to a lack of parent involvement in their students’ education and academic performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate how parent involvement affects student achievement and academic success in Pre-Kindergarten. It was hypothesized that parents who display higher levels of involvement will have children who perform better academically. The participants in this study included 26 preschool children and their parents. The researcher utilized a curriculum-based measurement, AIMSweb, and IGDI’s (Indicators of Individual Growth and Development for Infants and Toddlers), a pre-k assessment measure used to monitor and assess early literacy development in preschool children. A modified version of the Parent Involvement Project Questionnaire (PIPQ) was also used to determine if there is a positive correlation between parent involvement and student achievement. Results of the study indicate that invitation from school was statistically correlated with role construction and parent self efficacy but that student achievement was not statistically correlated with any of the scales from the parental involvement survey. Because the results were based on self-report and included a relatively small sample size, the outcomes of the study may not align with the majority of published studies pertaining to parent involvement and student achievement, due to its subjective nature. Or, perhaps for some students, there may be other factors that are more influential than parent involvement. Implications and further research are discussed

The postural effects of yoked prisms

The goal of this project was to quantify the postural changes induced by yoked prisms after a period of adaptive wear between two groups, one sitting and reading while the other was continually walking. The project included 36 randomly selected subjects ranging in age from 21 to 28. Testing involved measurements to quantify the immediate and short term effects of vertical yoked prism wear on the center of balance as measured by the Chattex Balance System™. Our study noted immediate significant changes in body posture when prisms were first placed on subjects. After short time adaptation, both reading and walking groups showed a return to habitual posture with no difference in adaptation between groups. No significant rebound or after-effect of prism wear was measured immeidately after prims removal.

Pre-service and Novice Teacher Self-Efficacy: A Tool to Understand and Further Develop Confidence for Impacting Change

Teacher efficacy measures a teacher’s perception of his or her capacity as a teacher and impacts teacher behavior in a number of different ways. This study examined teacher efficacy as well as pedagogical beliefs/practices in pre-service and novice in-service teachers to determine the nature of the relationship between the two. Results indicated that the novice in-service teachers demonstrated statistically significant higher scores on the efficacy measure. In regards to the relationship between pedagogy and efficacy, there was no statistically significant relation among the pre-service teachers but with the novice in-service teachers, efficacy was statistically significantly correlated with general instructional pedagogy

Peer Coaching as Professional Development for Remote, Online Faculty

To date, much of the coaching literature focuses on work with elementary teachers in the area of literacy (for example, Stover, Kissel, Haag, & Schoniker, 2011). Very little research regarding faculty coaching at the university level has been conducted. Anecdotal evidence suggests that coaching is beneficial to higher education faculty and that those who engage in coaching are more confident in their teaching (McDowell, Bedford & DiTommaso Downs, 2014). . However, no empirical evidence exists to support this, nor is there data to indicate the extent to which pedagogical straggles learned in coaching are transferred to the classroom.https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/symposium2018/1010/thumbnail.jp

Multiple drivers of interannual oyster settlement and recruitment in the lower Chesapeake Bay

Despite global investment in shellfish restoration activities, relatively little attention has been given to predicting optimal restoration sites and testing these expectations. We used a coupled biological-physical connectivity model as a guide to plant two distinct hatchery-spawned strains of the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, in the Lafayette River, Virginia during the summer of 2013 at two locations corresponding to virtual spawning locations within the connectivity model. We utilized single nucleotide polymorphism markers to test the model predictions by genotyping oysters recruited after planting two hatchery-spawned strains and examining interannual recruitment variability for two successive years. Two spat were identified as hybrids of one of the planted strains and resident oyster genotypes. We also observed a genetic influence from an oyster strain used previously for restoration. Differences in environmental conditions between the two years of monitored recruitment likely affected larval dispersal and survival, contributing to observed interannual differences in the newly recruiting cohorts. Oyster spat from 2013 were genetically more similar to resident adults sampled in the Lafayette River, while the 2014 spat exhibited genotypic frequencies more similar to adults from surrounding rivers. The winds during the spawning seasons differed between years providing conditions for retention in 2013 and mixing of water masses in 2014. We recommend that the monitoring of restoration activities should consider relevant environmental conditions and observe multiple years of recruitment to assess the genetic impacts of restoration plantings and variable reproductive success

Phylogeographic perspective on the distribution and dispersal of a marine pathogen, the oyster parasite Bonamia exitiosa

The significance of infectious disease has intensified as our marine ecosystems are increasingly altered, with molluscan taxa being among the affected. One of the important pathogens to emerge in recent years, the oyster parasite Bonamia exitiosa,has a broad geographic distribution and has been found to infect a number of oyster species. In order to better understand how B. exitiosa achieved this wide distribution, a gene genealogy was constructed using internal transcribed spacer region ribosomal DNA sequencing data from across the host species range.The analysis revealed population structure in the form of 4 well-defined groups of sequences: 3corresponding to geographic regions (temperate Atlantic and Pacific waters of the Southern Hemisphere, California, and the western Atlantic along the coast of the Americas) and the fourth geographically cosmopolitan. Inclusion of B. exitiosa sequences from New Zealand, Australia, and Argentina in the Southern Hemisphere group may reflect natural dispersal of the parasite via raft-ing with oyster hosts, whereas the California group may reflect limited anthropogenic movement of a host species, Ostrea lurida. The extensive geographic distribution of B. exitiosa parasites belonging to the cosmopolitan and Atlantic Coast groups may relate to both natural and anthropogenic dispersal of a single host, O. stentina, which is distributed from the eastern Americas tothe Mediterranean and African coast to New Zealand — that is, in most regions where B. exitiosa has been found to occur

Orexin-Corticotropin-Releasing Factor Receptor Heteromers in the Ventral Tegmental Area as Targets for Cocaine

Release of the neuropeptides corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and orexin-A in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) play an important role in stress-induced cocaine-seeking behavior. We provide evidence for pharmacologically significant interactions between CRF and orexin-A that depend on oligomerization of CRF1 receptor (CRF1R) and orexin OX1 receptors (OX1R). CRF1R–OX1R heteromers are the conduits of a negative crosstalk between orexin-A and CRF as demonstrated in transfected cells and rat VTA, in which they significantly modulate dendritic dopamine release. The cocaine target σ1 receptor (σ1R) also associates with the CRF1R–OX1R heteromer. Cocaine binding to the σ1R–CRF1R–OX1R complex promotes a long-term disruption of the orexin-A–CRF negative crosstalk. Through this mechanism, cocaine sensitizes VTA cells to the excitatory effects of both CRF and orexin-A, thus providing a mechanism by which stress induces cocaine seeking

Increasing the Clinical Efficacy of NK and Antibody-Mediated Cancer Immunotherapy: Potential Predictors of Successful Clinical Outcome Based on Observations in High-Risk Neuroblastoma

Disease recurrence is frequent in high-risk neuroblastoma (NBL) patients even after multi-modality aggressive treatment [a combination of chemotherapy, surgical resection, local radiation therapy, autologous stem cell transplantation, and cis-retinoic acid (CRA)]. Recent clinical studies have explored the use of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that bind to disialoganglioside (GD2), highly expressed in NBL, as a means to enable immune effector cells to destroy NBL cells via antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). Preclinical data indicate that ADCC can be more effective when appropriate effector cells are activated by cytokines. Clinical studies have pursued this by administering anti-GD2 mAb in combination with ADCC-enhancing cytokines (IL2 and GM-CSF), a regimen that has demonstrated improved cancer-free survival. More recently, early clinical studies have used a fusion protein that consists of the anti-GD2 mAb directly linked to IL2, and anti-tumor responses were seen in the Phase II setting. Analyses of genes that code for receptors that influence ADCC activity and natural killer (NK) cell function [Fc receptor (FcR), killer immunoglublin-like receptor (KIR), and KIR-ligand (KIR-L)] suggest patients with anti-tumor activity are more likely to have certain genotype profiles. Further analyses will need to be conducted to determine whether these genotypes can be used as predictive markers for favorable therapeutic outcome. In this review, we discuss factors that affect response to mAb-based tumor therapies such as hu14.18-IL2. Many of our observations have been made in the context of NBL; however, we will also include some observations made with mAbs targeting other tumor types that are consistent with results in NBL. Therefore, we hypothesize that the NBL observations discussed here may also be relevant to mAb therapy for other cancers, in which ADCC is known to play a role

Insights from the Inclusive Environments and Metrics in Biology Education and Research Network: Our Experience Organizing Inclusive Biology Education Research Events

In contrast to efforts focusing on improving inclusion in STEM classrooms from kindergarten through un-dergraduate (K–16), efforts to improve inclusion in scientific meetings and conferences, important hubs of STEM culture, are more recent. Markers of inclusion that are sometimes overlooked at these events can include the composition of panels, how workshops are run, the affordability of conferences, and various other mechanisms that maintain pre-existing hierarchies and norms that limit the participation of early-career researchers and individuals of minoritized cultural, linguistic, and economic backgrounds. The Inclusive Environments and Metrics in Biology Education and Research (iEMBER) network coordinates efforts of researchers from many fields interested in diversity and inclusion in biology education. Given the concerns regarding inclusion at professional meetings, iEMBER has developed and implemented several practices in planning and executing our meetings to make them more inclusive. In this report, we share our experiences developing inclusive meetings on biology education research and discuss the outcomes of such efforts. Spe-cifically, we present our approach to planning and executing the iEMBER 2019 conference and the National Association of Biology Teachers iEMBER 2019 workshop. This report adds to the growing body of resources on inclusive meetings, provides readers with an account of how such an attempt at implementation might unfold, and complements existing theories and work relating to the importance and functioning of such meetings in terms of representation in STEM