Mission to Mars: A one-week introductory project for new physics students

A new event to help smooth the induction of year 1 students to university was run in the Physics Department on a trial basis in the academic year 2009/10 and extended in 2010/11.The event took place in the first week of term with the aim of introducing the students to the Department and the level of engagement expected of them. After some ice-breakers and simple problem-solving, an open-ended physics problem on a topical issue was presented to the students who were organised to work in groups.In addition to working on the project problem, the students completed some on-line assignments (in order to introduce them to Pearson‟s Mastering Physics software which the Department has adopted after a successful pilot). In the first year the event ran for 2.5 days, with the groups producing a 1-page report (requiring them to encounter the printing system) and a poster for a poster session. In 2010/11 teams (each containing 5 groups) presented their results to an audience of academics (and fellow students), emphasising the importance of communication skills. The evaluation results indicate that it was a beneficial experience, and the effect of the changes in the second year has been investigated

New Physics Curriculum

Developing the critical thinking and problem-solving skills of students as rapidly as possible is a key requirement in improving learning outcomes at every stage of their degree. The Department of Physics at the University of Liverpool has entirely redeveloped years 1 and 2 of the undergraduate degree with a focus on students becoming independent learners as early as possible. The aims are to better integrate the undergraduate teaching provision and to complete the Institute of Physics core curriculum in years 1 and 2, in order to focus on research led teaching and independent projects in years 3 and 4. This new programme, entitled New Physics, starts in Welcome Week with the Undergraduate Physics Olympics and continues through the Year 1 Project (Mission to Mars) in the first week of semester one. The aim is to set the standard for collaborative achievement and introduce students to the way that physicists think. Innovative problem solving classes incorporating active learning such as peerassessment,group learning and exemplars designed to improve these skills andenhance the quality of learning among its first-year students have been introduced

The physics outreach group: A how to guide

In less than two years in existence, the Liverpool Physics Outreach Group has developed and delivered physics workshops to over 3000 school pupils. The Group is voluntary and non-credit bearing, meeting once per week to share good practice, develop new ideas and obtain feedback on their communications skills. Funding to run projects, such as Photons in the Classroom has been awarded from the Science and Technologies Funding Council, and the Institute of Physics. After some collaboration with Chemistry and Mathematics, we have put together a business case for a School of Physical Sciences Outreach Group.Collaboration with other Departments has begun in which we introduce students who require an understanding of physics, but often have no background in the subject (e.g. Radiotherapy). By incorporating the hands-on „fun‟ elements of outreach activities, these students have found physics more accessible, and a thorough evaluation of benefits to their learning is underway. The Ogden Trust have provided funding for a Women in Physics Outreach event which will be run by girls, for girls This approach is considered effective for the recruitment and retention of girls in physics and engineering in other countries (notably Germany).Benefits to our students involved include everything from a huge increase in confidence to an improvement in their motivation to learn physics. The schools involved and the Physics Department benefit from opening the lines of communication. Evaluation indicated that the pupils in all schools visited thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and have an improved attitude toward science, and in particular, physics. The uptake of Triple (separate) Science in all schools visited has increased since our visits began. We would like to share our experience of setting up and running so many successful events on order that other departments might develop their own without having to re-invent the wheel

Problem-based learning in physics supported by electronic assessment (Mastering Physics)

Problem Based Learning (PBL) was introduced into a year 1 module in physics in the University of Liverpool in 2008/09. Mastering Physics (MP) electronic assessment from Pearson was also introduced to support this change. The main alteration was that for the purposes of continuous assessment the three tutorial-style homework assignments worth 10% of the module mark, were replaced with four group projects and 6 MP electronic assessments worth 30% of the module mark in 2008-09, and 50% in 2009-10. The most notable improvement is from ~45% of students submitting three assignments, claiming to have spent ~30 minutes per week on them, and achieving an average mark of 50%, to over 80% of students in 2008-09, and over 95% in 2009-10 submitting work for all projects and electronic assessments, with feedback indicating an average of 5-6 hours per week of work outside class. The average and median marks also improved dramatically from 50% in 2007-08 to 70% in 2008-09 and 75% in 2009-10

First years enjoying physics? (The Undergraduate Physics Olympics)

The Undergraduate Physics Olympics (UPO) was run for the first time in the second semester of the 2005/06 academic year. The aim of the event was to enhance the first year experience by organising teams of freshers to compete for prizes on a set of practical physics challenges. Over the course of an afternoon each team of 4 had to race against the clock to design and build a boat, set up and use their own code, and demonstrate linear acceleration in the park outside. Communication between students was encouraged by awarding points for bonus questions demonstrating good team spirit as they prepared for their first laboratory sessions together. The event also enabled students to be introduced to the departmental laboratories, and to the staff and more senior students in an informal environment, at an early stage in the year

GEMINI: A Natural Language System for Spoken-Language Understanding

Gemini is a natural language understanding system developed for spoken language applications. The paper describes the architecture of Gemini, paying particular attention to resolving the tension between robustness and overgeneration. Gemini features a broad-coverage unification-based grammar of English, fully interleaved syntactic and semantic processing in an all-paths, bottom-up parser, and an utterance-level parser to find interpretations of sentences that might not be analyzable as complete sentences. Gemini also includes novel components for recognizing and correcting grammatical disfluencies, and for doing parse preferences. This paper presents a component-by-component view of Gemini, providing detailed relevant measurements of size, efficiency, and performance.Comment: 8 pages, postscrip

Behavioral and genomic patterns of evolution during speciation via reproductive and agonistic character displacement

Interspecific reproductive interactions, such as hybridization or fighting over access to mates, are surprisingly common given that they frequently result in negative fitness consequences. Selection to avoid hybridizing with another species can result in mating trait evolution via reproductive character displacement (RCD). Similarly, selection to avoid aggressive interactions with another species can result in agonistic character displacement (ACD). Both RCD and ACD can lead to a pattern of enhanced preferences for mating or fighting with conspecifics over heterospecifics in areas of sympatry compared to allopatry. Behavioral isolation can potentially evolve among populations within a species as a correlated effect of RCD or ACD, termed cascade RCD (CRCD) or cascade ACD (CACD). My dissertation research integrated behavioral and genomic approaches to investigate the role of character displacement in promoting speciation in a diverse clade of stream fishes called darters (Percidae: Etheostominae). I focused on two groups in the subgenus Oligocephalus: the orangethroat darters clade (Etheostoma: Ceasia) and the rainbow darter (Etheostoma caeruleum). I found behavioral evidence for male-driven RCD and ACD between multiple orangethroat species and their respective sympatric rainbow darter populations. When orangethroat and rainbow darters occur sympatrically, males prefer conspecific over heterospecific females and bias their aggression towards conspecific over heterospecific males. Such preferences are absent when these species occur allopatrically. I also found that RCD and ACD between orangethroat and rainbow darters has secondarily caused mating and agonistic traits to diverge among orangethroat lineages. When orangethroat species occur in sympatry with rainbow darters, orangethroat males preferentially mate and fight with conspecifics over another closely related orangethroat species. However, when orangethroat species are allopatric with respect to rainbow darters, orangethroat males do not differentiate between conspecific versus heterospecific orangethroat males and females. This is consistent with both CRCD and CACD within the orangethroat darter clade and represents the only known example of CACD to date. Notably, females do not exhibit preferences for variable components of male coloration between or within species, despite the presence of sexual dimorphism and traditional sex roles. Instead, color pattern functions in male competition. I found that male color pattern is more divergent between orangethroat and rainbow darters in sympatry versus allopatry. Consequently, males bias aggression towards conspecific over heterospecific males in sympatry but not in allopatry. This shows that male competition alone can lead to color pattern divergence between and within species via ACD and CACD. The failure to detect female mate preferences in this system may be due to females facing a high cost to choosiness, as I observed that egg viability decreases rapidly with time since ovulation. Together, these results contradict the classic paradigm that female preference promotes the evolution of behavioral isolation in species where males exhibit elaborate secondary sex traits. Selection to avoid hybridization has likely promoted the evolution of RCD and ACD between orangethroat and rainbow darters. I used genomic data to show that hybridization is ongoing and that backcross hybrids suffer high mortality. To investigate the genetic mechanisms underlying postzygotic isolation between these species, I assembled the orangethroat darter genome and transcriptome, resulting in the first annotated darter draft genome. I also generated linkage maps for orangethroat and rainbow darters. Using these tools, I identified several putative chromosomal translocations that may be implicated in genetic incompatibilities. Analyses of restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (RADseq) data in laboratory-generated backcross hybrids revealed strong selection against recombinant individuals. This represents one of the few studies to use fine-scale ancestry mapping in hybrids to characterize genome-wide patterns corresponding to genetic incompatibilities in non-model species. My results indicate that a large proportion of the genome is involved in postzygotic isolation, which in turn (1) directly promotes RCD/ACD in sympatry between orangethroat and rainbow darters and (2) indirectly promotes CRCD/CACD among orangethroat darter lineages. Overall, my dissertation research has significantly changed our understanding of speciation in darters and has provided novel insight into the genomic architecture of hybrid incompatibilities that promote character displacement. The genomic resources that I generated for my dissertation research will undoubtedly serve as valuable tools for future studies on speciation, sexual selection, phylogenetics, mating system evolution, and conservation in darters

Statin pretreatment is protective despite an association with greater coronary artery disease burden in patients presenting with a first ST-elevation myocardial infarction.

The relationship of chronic pre-event statin use with coronary disease severity at the time of presentation with a first acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is unknown. A retrospective review was performed of consecutive patients presenting with STEMI and without a prior history of vascular disease, divided into those whom had been treated with statins before presentation (n=50) and those whom were not pretreated (n=231). Patients pretreated with statins were more likely to have left main (24.0% vs 8.3%; P=.001) or 3-vessel disease (44.0% vs 25.1%; P=.007) vs untreated patients. After matching for risk factors, a trend toward higher likelihood of 3-vessel disease persisted in the statin pretreatment group (47.6% vs 28.6%; P=.07). Significantly lower peak troponin-I levels (87.8 mg/dL vs 134.5 mg/dL; P=.006) were found in patients pretreated with statins, suggesting that statin pretreatment is protective in patients with STEMI despite the presence of greater disease burden. This finding supports the concept that statin therapy alters the natural history of coronary artery disease development leading to a first STEMI and is cardioprotective in those patients who experience a first STEMI

High PrEP uptake and objective longitudinal adherence among HIV-exposed women with personal or partner plans for pregnancy in rural Uganda: A cohort study

Background In Uganda, fertility rates and adult HIV prevalence are high, and many women conceive with partners living with HIV. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) reduces HIV acquisition for women and, therefore, infants. We developed the Healthy Families-PrEP intervention to support PrEP use as part of HIV prevention during periconception and pregnancy periods. We conducted a longitudinal cohort study to evaluate oral PrEP use among women participating in the intervention. Methods and findings We enrolled HIV–negative women with plans for pregnancy with a partner living, or thought to be living, with HIV (2017 to 2020) to evaluate PrEP use among women participating in the Healthy Families-PrEP intervention. Quarterly study visits through 9 months included HIV and pregnancy testing and HIV prevention counseling. PrEP was provided in electronic pillboxes, providing the primary adherence measure (“high” adherence when pillbox was opened ≥80% of days). Enrollment questionnaires assessed factors associated with PrEP use. Plasma tenofovir (TFV) and intraerythrocytic TFV-diphosphate (TFV-DP) concentrations were determined quarterly for women who acquired HIV and a randomly selected subset of those who did not; concentrations TFV ≥40 ng/mL and TFV-DP ≥600 fmol/punch were categorized as “high.” Women who became pregnant were initially exited from the cohort by design; from March 2019, women with incident pregnancy remained in the study with quarterly follow-up until pregnancy outcome. Primary outcomes included (1) PrEP uptake (proportion who initiated PrEP); and (2) PrEP adherence (proportion of days with pillbox openings during the first 3 months following PrEP initiation). We used univariable and multivariable-adjusted linear regression to evaluate baseline predictors selected based on our conceptual framework of mean adherence over 3 months. We also assessed mean monthly adherence over 9 months of follow-up and during pregnancy. We enrolled 131 women with mean age 28.7 years (95% CI: 27.8 to 29.5). Ninety-seven (74%) reported a partner with HIV and 79 (60%) reported condomless sex. Most women (N = 118; 90%) initiated PrEP. Mean electronic adherence during the 3 months following initiation was 87% (95% CI: 83%, 90%). No covariates were associated with 3-month pill-taking behavior. Concentrations of plasma TFV and TFV-DP were high among 66% and 47%, 56% and 41%, and 45% and 45% at months 3, 6, and 9, respectively. We observed 53 pregnancies among 131 women (1-year cumulative incidence 53% [95% CI: 43%, 62%]) and 1 HIV-seroconversion in a non-pregnant woman. Mean pillcap adherence for PrEP users with pregnancy follow-up (N = 17) was 98% (95% CI: 97%, 99%). Study design limitations include lack of a control group. Conclusions Women in Uganda with PrEP indications and planning for pregnancy chose to use PrEP. By electronic pillcap, most were able to sustain high adherence to daily oral PrEP prior to and during pregnancy. Differences in adherence measures highlight challenges with adherence assessment; serial measures of TFV-DP in whole blood suggest 41% to 47% of women took sufficient periconception PrEP to prevent HIV. These data suggest that women planning for and with pregnancy should be prioritized for PrEP implementation, particularly in settings with high fertility rates and generalized HIV epidemics. Future iterations of this work should compare the outcomes to current standard of care

Urocortin 2 inhibits human aortic smooth muscle cell proliferation via corticotrophin releasing hormone receptor-2 in abdominal aortic aneurysm

Introduction: A key feature of abdominal aortic aneurysm is the loss of proliferation and paucity of vascular smooth muscle cells, the major cells within the aortic tunica media. It has been suggested that urocortin 2 (UCN2), a selective ligand for corticotrophin releasing factor receptor 2 (CRFR2) may play a beneficial role in various cardiovascular diseases. However, the role of this peptide in abdominal aortic aneurysm has not been studied in detail. Here we assessed the hypothesis that urocortin 2 promotes an aneurysm phenotype in human aortic smooth muscles in vitro via CRFR2. Experimental Procedure: We assessed the release of UCN2 from explants of human tissue biopsies in vitro (Aortic aneurysm thrombus, n = 14; aortic aneurysm body, n = 11; femoral atheroma control, n = 6) using ELISA. We investigated the effect of incubating human aortic smooth muscle cells with recombinant UCN2 or aneurysm thrombus explants secretions at a UCN2 dose of 0, 10 and 100 nM for 24 and 48 hours (n = 6 per group x 3 experiments). Cell proliferation was determined by the alamarBlue® cell viability reagent. Results were analyzed and presented as mean ± SEM relative to the control. We also investigated the impact of blocking CRFR2 on UCN2 induced changes on these cells. Results: Secretion of UCN2 was significantly higher from aneurysm thrombus (n = 14, p = 0.0020) and aneurysm body (n = 11, p = 0.0104) compared to femoral atheroma. Human aortic smooth muscle cells proliferation was dose dependently inhibited by recombinant UCN2 (p = 0.0172) and aortic aneurysm thrombus conditioned medium (p = 0.0273) after 24 hours. This effect of recombinant UCN2 was abrogated significantly by prior incubation with the CRFR2 blocker Astressin-2B (p = 0.0043). Similar effects were seen on incubating cells for 48 hours. Conclusion: UCN2 is released in high concentrations by aortic aneurysm thrombus. UCN2 inhibits aortic vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation in vitro via CRFR2. This effect may be relevant to the pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysm