A partnership in Nebraska with the Humane Society

Perhaps service-learning continues to grow as an effective pedagogy in colleges of education because it offers everyone involved an opportunity to put words into action. With the news full of stories of bullying and school shootings, teachers and teacher candidates look for someone to help them make sense of what feels to be a growing trend of cruelty. Perhaps it is a natural reaction for teachers to want to do something positive in the face of brutality. Perhaps our wanting to be proactive corresponds to whatever drew us to education in the first place. Regardless of the cause, four literacy professors used the vehicle of service-learning to challenge their graduate and undergraduate students to consider issues of bullying, brutality and cruelty

EARLY RESULTS OF ECOPOESIS EXPERIMENTS IN THE SHOT MARTIAN ENVIRONMENT SIMULATOR

ABSTRACT Humanity is on the verge of having the capability of constructively directing environmental changes on a planetary scale. One could argue that we are making these changes on Earth today, but in a negative manner. Within the foreseeable future, we will have the technology to modify Mars' environment, and make it a habitable planet. However, we do not have enough information to determine the course of such an event. SHOT has designed and built a test-bed apparatus that can replicate most of Mars' environment conditions (with the notable exceptions of gravity and cosmic radiation) within a 5.6 liter chamber. Here, we present the results of initial experiments to determine the suitability of specific microorganisms as pioneering life-forms for Mars. Included among the potential pioneers were five genera of cyanobacteria (Anabaena, Chroococcidiopsis, Plectonema, Synechococcus and Syenechocystis), and three partially-characterized eubacterial strains that were isolated from Chile's Atacama Desert (two species of Bacillus and Klebsiella oxytoca). During these initial trials, we used a present-day mix of martian atmsospheric gases, but at a pressure of 100 mbar (10 times Mars's current atmospheric pressure). Organisms were inoculated into samples of JSC Mars-1 soil stimulant and exposed to full-spectrum simulated martian sunlight. Day/night temperature cycled from 26°C to -80°C and back. Experiments included a 24-hour, brief-exposure trial, a 7-day trial, a14-day trial and a 5-week trial to determine the survival and growth of our potential martian pioneers

Transancestral mapping and genetic load in systemic lupus erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with marked gender and ethnic disparities. We report a large transancestral association study of SLE using Immunochip genotype data from 27,574 individuals of European (EA), African (AA) and Hispanic Amerindian (HA) ancestry. We identify 58 distinct non-HLA regions in EA, 9 in AA and 16 in HA (B50% of these regions have multiple independent associations); these include 24 novel SLE regions (Po5 10 8), refined association signals in established regions, extended associations to additional ancestries, and a disentangled complex HLA multigenic effect. The risk allele count (genetic load) exhibits an accelerating pattern of SLE risk, leading us to posit a cumulative hit hypothesis for autoimmune disease. Comparing results across the three ancestries identifies both ancestry-dependent and ancestry-independent contributions to SLE risk. Our results are consistent with the unique and complex histories of the populations sampled, and collectively help clarify the genetic architecture and ethnic disparities in SL

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

EXTREMOPHILES FOR ECOPOIESIS: DESIRABLE TRAITS FOR AND SURVIVABILITY OF PIONEER MARTIAN ORGANISMS

ABSTRACT Humanity is on the verge of having the capability of constructively directing environmental changes on a planetary scale. Within the foreseeable future, we will have the technology to modify Mars' environment, and make it a habitable planet. However, we do not have enough information to determine the course of such an event. To our knowledge, no known terrestrial organism has the capability of living on Mars' surface under present conditions. However, with some modification, Mars' environment could be brought into the survival and growth range of currently known microorganisms. Using the SHOT Ecopoesis Testbed, we performed survival/growth experiments to determine the suitability of potential pioneering life forms for Mars. Included among the potential pioneers were five genera of cyanobacteria (Anabaena, Chroococcidiopsis, Plectonema, Synechococcus and Synechocystis), three partially-characterized Atacama Desert heterotrophic eubacterial strains, and several desert varnish isolates. Microorganisms were exposed to a present-day mix of martian atmospheric gases, but at a pressure of 100 mbar (10 times Mars' current atmospheric pressure). Cultures were inoculated into samples of JSC Mars-1 soil stimulant and exposed to full-spectrum simulated martian sunlight. Day/night temperature cycled from 26°C to -80°C and back. Preliminary results indicate that both autotrophic and heterotrophic bacteria can survive in the simulated engineered martian environment

Iontophoretic delivery of dexamethasone phosphate for non-infectious, non-necrotising anterior scleritis, dose-finding clinical trial

AbstractCurrently available treatment options for non-infectious scleritis, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, systemic corticosteroids and immunosuppressive therapies, have both efficacy and side effect limitations. Iontophoretic delivery of corticosteroids has been demonstrated to be effective for anterior uveitis and represents a potential new approach to scleritis therapy. We hypothesised that iontophoretic delivery would provide effective and precise medication delivery to the sclera, while limiting systemic exposure and side effects. This first-in-human randomised, double-masked, dose-escalating study of iontophoretic administration of dexamethasone phosphate for scleritis suggests the treatment to be well tolerated and safe (within the limitations of the 18 patients sample size). There was a suggestion of efficacy in the lowest (1.2 mA/min at 0.4 mA) dose group (corresponding to the superficial location of scleritis compared with anterior uveitis), with 5/7 eyes meeting the primary efficacy outcome within 28 days. Our results suggest iontophoretic delivery of corticosteroids is a promising potential treatment for scleritis, with favourable safety and preliminary efficacy results in this phase 1 trial.Trial registration numberNCT01059955

Artificial intelligence-assisted clinical decision support for childhood asthma management: A randomized clinical trial.

RationaleClinical decision support (CDS) tools leveraging electronic health records (EHRs) have been an approach for addressing challenges in asthma care but remain under-studied through clinical trials.ObjectivesTo assess the effectiveness and efficiency of Asthma-Guidance and Prediction System (A-GPS), an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-assisted CDS tool, in optimizing asthma management through a randomized clinical trial (RCT).MethodsThis was a single-center pragmatic RCT with a stratified randomization design conducted for one year in the primary care pediatric practice of the Mayo Clinic, MN. Children (MeasurementsIntervention was a quarterly A-GPS report to clinicians including relevant clinical information for asthma management from EHRs and machine learning-based prediction for risk of asthma exacerbation (AE). Primary endpoint was the occurrence of AE within 1 year and secondary outcomes included time required for clinicians to review EHRs for asthma management.Main resultsOut of 555 participants invited to the study, 184 consented for the study and were randomized (90 in intervention and 94 in control group). Median age of 184 participants was 8.5 years. While the proportion of children with AE in both groups decreased from the baseline (P = 0.042), there was no difference in AE frequency between the two groups (12% for the intervention group vs. 15% for the control group, Odds Ratio: 0.82; 95%CI 0.374-1.96; P = 0.626) during the study period. For the secondary end points, A-GPS intervention, however, significantly reduced time for reviewing EHRs for asthma management of each participant (median: 3.5 min, IQR: 2-5), compared to usual care without A-GPS (median: 11.3 min, IQR: 6.3-15); pConclusionsWhile A-GPS-based intervention showed similar reduction in AE events to usual care, it might reduce clinicians' burden for EHRs review resulting in efficient asthma management. A larger RCT is needed for further studying the findings.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02865967