Raising Awareness of the Link Between Coal Mining and Mental Health

Mental health is a concern in Carbon and Emery Counties of Utah, particularly in its association with coal mining. An event was held to raise awareness about how the industry impacts mental health and resources to address it. Results from pre- and post-surveys show the usefulness of the event to attendees

Neutron diffraction reveals sequence-specific membrane insertion of pre-fibrillar islet amyloid polypeptide and inhibition by rifampicin

AbstractHuman islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) forms amyloid deposits in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). Pre-fibrillar hIAPP oligomers (in contrast to monomeric IAPP or mature fibrils) increase membrane permeability, suggesting an important role in the disease. In the first structural study of membrane-associated hIAPP, lamellar neutron diffraction shows that oligomeric hIAPP inserts into phospholipid bilayers, and extends across the membrane. Rifampicin, which inhibits hIAPP-induced membrane permeabilisation in functional studies, prevents membrane insertion. In contrast, rat IAPP (84% identical to hIAPP, but non-amyloidogenic) does not insert into bilayers. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that membrane-active pre-fibrillar hIAPP oligomers insert into beta cell membranes in NIDDM

The effects of personal relevance and repetition on persuasive processing

Past research has suggested that familiarity with amessage, brought about by repetition, can increase (Cacioppo & Petty, 1989) or decrease (Garcia–Marques & Mackie, 2001) analytic (systematic) processing of that message. Two experiments attempted to resolve these contradictory findings by examining how personal relevance may moderate the impact of familiarity on processing. Experiment 1 manipulated repetition and personal relevance and found that message repetition increased analytic processing (as reflected by greater persuasion following strong vs.weak arguments) under high relevance conditions and decreased analytic processing when relevance was low. In Experiment 2, both repetition and relevance were manipulated in different ways, but results again showed that repetition reduced analytic processing under low relevance conditions and that perceived familiarity mediated this outcome. Implications of these findings are discussed

Voices Raised, Spring 2022

Director\u27s column; workforce diversification; women\u27s leadership immersion; staff spotlight on Leah Ward; focus on equity, education, and research (UD Men for Gender Equity; Gender Equity Research Colloquium); diversity and inclusion; Women of UD; student organization spotlight; Voice of Black Women; staff summaries.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/wc_newsletter/1057/thumbnail.jp

The Lantern Vol. 71, No. 1, Fall 2003

• Lights of Venice • Portrait • Switzerland • Drunken • Revel Writing • Nectarines • Shifting Gears • Stogie • Reflect • In the Key of Fuchsia Minor • Jarring • Sissy • Mongols vs. Amish: X-Treme Culture Clash • Holding On • The Bethany • Creekside • The Real Thing • On Being Alone and Other Pleasures • Forced Entry • The Case of Beauty: Aesthetics of Distancehttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1163/thumbnail.jp

Convective burn from use of hairdryer for heel warming prior to the heel prick test - a case report

Background Blood sampling through heel lancing is the most common invasive painful procedure performed on newborn infants. Case Presentation We report the case of a five day old infant who sustained burns to the left foot and leg after the mother's hairdryer was used by the midwife to warm the baby's heel prior to capillary blood sampling (CBS) with an automated device. Conclusion Heel warming is not recommended for routine CBS although it is often practiced. If pre-warming is to be practiced, standardised devices should be used rather than improvised techniques. This will reduce the risk of injury to these infants

IL-1β stimulates a novel, IKKα -dependent, NIK -independent activation of non-canonical NFκB signalling

In this study, we examined the activation of non-canonical nuclear factor Kappa B (NFκB) signalling in U2OS cells, a cellular metastatic bone cancer model. Whilst Lymphotoxin α1β2 (LTα1β2) stimulated the expected slow, delayed, sustained activation of serine 866/870 p100 phosphorylation and increased cellular expression of p52 NFκB, we found that canonical agonists, Interleukin-1β and also Tumour necrosis factor-α (TNFα) generated a rapid transient increase in pp100, which was maximal by 15-30 minutes. This rapid phosphorylation was also observed in other cells types, such as DU145 and HCAECs suggesting the phenomenon is universal. IKKα deletion using CRISPR/Cas9 revealed an IKKα-dependent mechanism for serine 866/870 and additionally serine 872 p100 phosphorylation for both IL-1β and LTα1β2. In contrast, knockdown of IKKα using siRNA or pharmacological inhibition of IKKα activity was without effect on p100 phosphorylation. Pre-incubation of cells with the NFκB inducing-kinase (NIK) inhibitor, CW15337, had no effect on IL-1β induced phosphorylation of p100 however, the response to LTα1β2 was virtually abolished. Surprisingly IL-1β also stimulated p52 nuclear translocation as early as 60 minutes, this response and the concomitant p65 translocation was partially reduced by IKKα deletion. Furthermore, p52 nuclear translocation was unaffected by CW15337. In contrast, the response to LTα1β2 was essentially abolished by both IKKα deletion and CW15337. Taken together, these finding reveal novel forms of NFκB non-canonical signalling stimulated by ligands that activate the canonical NFκB pathway strongly such as IL-1β

The Plasmodium falciparum Artemisinin Susceptibility-Associated AP-2 Adaptin μ Subunit is Clathrin Independent and Essential for Schizont Maturation

The efficacy of current antimalarial drugs is threatened by reduced susceptibility of Plasmodium falciparum to artemisinin, associated with mutations in pfkelch13 Another gene with variants known to modulate the response to artemisinin encodes the μ subunit of the AP-2 adaptin trafficking complex. To elucidate the cellular role of AP-2μ in P. falciparum, we performed a conditional gene knockout, which severely disrupted schizont organization and maturation, leading to mislocalization of key merozoite proteins. AP-2μ is thus essential for blood-stage replication. We generated transgenic P. falciparum parasites expressing hemagglutinin-tagged AP-2μ and examined cellular localization by fluorescence and electron microscopy. Together with mass spectrometry analysis of coimmunoprecipitating proteins, these studies identified AP-2μ-interacting partners, including other AP-2 subunits, the K10 kelch-domain protein, and PfEHD, an effector of endocytosis and lipid mobilization, but no evidence was found of interaction with clathrin, the expected coat protein for AP-2 vesicles. In reverse immunoprecipitation experiments with a clathrin nanobody, other heterotetrameric AP-complexes were shown to interact with clathrin, but AP-2 complex subunits were absent.IMPORTANCE We examine in detail the AP-2 adaptin complex from the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum In most studied organisms, AP-2 is involved in bringing material into the cell from outside, a process called endocytosis. Previous work shows that changes to the μ subunit of AP-2 can contribute to drug resistance. Our experiments show that AP-2 is essential for parasite development in blood but does not have any role in clathrin-mediated endocytosis. This suggests that a specialized function for AP-2 has developed in malaria parasites, and this may be important for understanding its impact on drug resistance

Reduced Transmissibility of East African Indian Strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

BACKGROUND: Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) has been classified into 4 main lineages. Some reports have associated certain lineages with particular clinical phenotypes, but there is still insufficient information regarding the clinical and epidemiologic implications of MTB lineage variation. METHODS: Using large sequence polymorphisms we classified MTB isolates from a population-based study in Montreal, Canada into the 4 major lineages, and identified the associated clinical and epidemiologic features. In addition, IS6110-RFLP and spoligotyping were used as indicators of recent TB transmission. The study population was divided into a derivation cohort, diagnosed between 2001 and 2007, and a separate validation cohort, diagnosed between 1996 and 2000. RESULTS: In the derivation cohort, when compared to the other MTB lineages, the East African-Indian (EAI) lineage was associated with lower rates of TB transmission, as measured by: positive TST among close contacts of pulmonary TB cases (adjusted odds ratio 0.6: [95% confidence interval 0.4-0.9]), and clustered TB cases (0.3: [<0.001-0.6]). Severe forms of TB were also less likely among the EAI group (0.4: [<0.001-0.8]). There were no significant differences when comparing patients with the other MTB lineages. In the validation cohort, the EAI lineage was associated with lower rates of positive TST among contacts (0.5: [0.3-0.9]) and a trend towards less clustered TB cases (0.5: [0.1-1.8]) when compared to the other lineages. Disease severity among the different groups was not significantly different in the validation cohort. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that in Montreal, EAI strains were associated with reduced transmission compared to other MTB lineages