S3E4: How does diversity strengthen education and community?

The death of George Floyd is just one of several incidents that pushed issues of race, diversity and justice to the front burner in 2020. At the University of Maine, President Joan Ferrini-Mundy created a new council to examine where UMaine stands in relation to these issues and what can be done to foster a more inclusive and equitable campus atmosphere. The Council on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion began its work this fall. We speak with council co-chairs Kimberly Whitehead, vice president and chief of staff to the president, and Susan McKay, a professor of physics and director of the Center for Research in STEM Education, or RiSE Center, about efforts to make UMaine and the education it provides more just and reflective of the diverse world students will enter

Accurate preoperative diagnosis of pericardial constriction using cine computed tomography

AbstractObjectives. The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of cine computed tomography in the diagnosis of constrictive pericarditis.Background. Constrictive pericarditis is characterized by abnormalities of both cardiac structure and function. Accurate diagnosis requires detection of both a thickened pericardium and abnormal ventricular diastolic filling. At present, no one diagnostic technique has demonstrated sufficient accuracy in this setting. Cine computed tomography is a relatively new cardiac imaging mode with very high time and spatial resolution that has the potential to accurately diagnose constrictive pericarditis.Methods. Twelve consecutive patients were retrospectively identified who had catheterization findings suggestive of constrictive physiology, had undergone a cine computed tomographic examination and had pathologic data that delineated the status of the pericardium. Group 1 (with constrictive pericarditis; n = 5) had surgical confirmation of thickened pericardium and improved clinically after pericardiectomy. Group 2 (no constrictive pericarditis; n = 7) had cardiomyopathy with normal pericardium. Seven normal volunteers (Group 3) were also studied. Cine computed tomograms were obtained for the entire heart (8-mm slices, 17 frames/s, nonionic contrast medium). Pericardial thickness was measured at 10 ° intervals at three ventricular levels in each subject. The rapidity of diastolic filling was assessed by calculating the percent filling fraction in early diastole.Results. Pericardial thickness was 10 ± 2 mm (mean ± SD) in Group 1, 2 ± 1 mm in Group 2 and 1 ± 1 mm in Group 3 (p < 0.05, constrictive pericarditis vs. no constrictive pericarditis). Left ventricular filling fraction was 83 ± 6% in Group 1, 62 ± 9% in Group 2 and 44 ± 5% in Group 3. Right ventricular filling fraction was 93 ± 5% in Group 1, 62 ± 14% in Group 2 and 35 ± 6% in Group 3 (p < 0.05, Group 1 vs. Groups 2 and 3). Both indexes provided a clear-cut distinction between patients with and without constriction.Conclusions. Cine computed tomography simultaneously provides both anatomic and physiologic data that allow accurate preoperative diagnosis of pericardial constriction

Hes3 regulates cell number in cultures from glioblastoma multiforme with stem cell characteristics

Tumors exhibit complex organization and contain a variety of cell populations. The realization that the regenerative properties of a tumor may be largely confined to a cell subpopulation (cancer stem cell) is driving a new era of anti-cancer research. Cancer stem cells from Glioblastoma Multiforme tumors express markers that are also expressed in non-cancerous neural stem cells, including nestin and Sox2. We previously showed that the transcription factor Hes3 is a marker of neural stem cells, and that its expression is inhibited by JAK activity. Here we show that Hes3 is also expressed in cultures from glioblastoma multiforme which express neural stem cell markers, can differentiate into neurons and glia, and can recapitulate the tumor of origin when transplanted into immunocompromised mice. Similar to observations in neural stem cells, JAK inhibits Hes3 expression. Hes3 RNA interference reduces the number of cultured glioblastoma cells suggesting a novel therapeutic strategy

The Effect of Alcohol Treatment on Social Costs of Alcohol Dependence: Results From the COMBINE Study

The COMBINE (Combined Pharmacotherapies and Behavioral Intervention) clinical trial recently evaluated the efficacy of pharmacotherapies, behavioral therapies, and their combinations for the treatment of alcohol dependence. Previously, the cost and cost-effectiveness of COMBINE have been studied. Policy makers, patients, and nonalcohol-dependent individuals may be concerned not only with alcohol treatment costs but also with the impact of alcohol interventions on broader social costs and outcomes

High-Redshift Quasars Found in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Commissioning Data II: The Spring Equatorial Stripe

This is the second paper in a series aimed at finding high-redshift quasars from five-color (u'g'r'i'z') imaging data taken along the Celestial Equator by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) during its commissioning phase. In this paper, we present 22 high-redshift quasars (z>3.6) discovered from ~250 deg^2 of data in the spring Equatorial Stripe, plus photometry for two previously known high-redshift quasars in the same region of sky. Our success rate of identifying high-redshift quasars is 68%. Five of the newly discovered quasars have redshifts higher than 4.6 (z=4.62, 4.69, 4.70, 4.92 and 5.03). All the quasars have i* < 20.2 with absolute magnitude -28.8 < M_B < -26.1 (h=0.5, q_0=0.5). Several of the quasars show unusual emission and absorption features in their spectra, including an object at z=4.62 without detectable emission lines, and a Broad Absorption Line (BAL) quasar at z=4.92.Comment: 28 pages, AJ in press (Jan 2000), final version with minor changes; high resolution finding charts available at http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~fan/paper/qso2.htm

Vaccination with designed neopeptides induces intratumoral, cross-reactive CD4+ T cell responses in glioblastoma

Purpose: The low mutational load of some cancers is considered one reason for the difficulties to develop effective tumor vaccines. To overcome this problem, we developed a strategy to design neopeptides through single amino acid mutation to enhance their immunogenicity. Experimental Design: Exome- and RNA sequencing as well as in silico HLA-binding predictions to autologous HLA molecules were used to identify candidate neopeptides. Subsequently, in silico HLA-anchor placements were used to deduce putative T cell receptor contacts of peptides. Single amino acids of TCR contacting residues were then mutated by amino acid replacements. Overall, 175 peptides were synthesized and sets of 25 each containing both peptides designed to bind to HLA class I and II molecules applied in the vaccination. Upon development of a tumor recurrence, the tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were characterized in detail both at the bulk and clonal level. Results: The immune response of peripheral blood T cells to vaccine peptides, including natural peptides and designed neopeptides, gradually increased with repetitive vaccination, but remained low. In contrast, at the time of tumor recurrence, CD8+ TILs and CD4+ TILs responded to 45% and 100% respectively of the vaccine peptides. Further, TIL-derived CD4+ T cell clones showed strong responses and tumor cell lysis not only against the designed neopeptide but also against the unmutated natural peptides of the tumor. Conclusions: Turning tumor self-peptides into foreign antigens by introduction of designed mutations is a promising strategy to induce strong intratumoral CD4+ T cell responses in a cold tumor like glioblastoma