The Ursinus Weekly, October 9, 1975

\u2779 elects Delli-Bovi; Jill Leauber fills vacancy • Ursinus hosts family fete • Danforth Foundation offers fellowships • Dept. addition • From the cluttered desk of the U.S.G.A. President • Correction • Editorial: The Fact, after or before • Focus: Dr. Parsons • Overview: Intro. Philosophy • Lions in another Bowl? • The Throwaway children • U.S.G.A. Carnival • Phila. singers open season • Aerosmith: Bedlam • Opportunity for women • Reflections: A letter home • AFC forecast • George McGinnis: $3 million man • Field hockey report • Lebanon Valley crushes Ursinushttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1042/thumbnail.jp

The Ursinus Weekly, October 2, 1975

Meetings on Perkiomen Valley growth • In memoriam • Gene Shue presents: Year of the Sixers • City planner speaks • Ursinus College appoints Assoc. Prof. of Education • Kane earns Doctorate • Editorial: A different year? • Is there more to life? • New dorms renovated • Saturday Lunch • Forum series opens: Nina Deutsch • Musical notes • Chris Hillman rated • New events at Walnut • Nancy Drew revisited • Alumnus is named to Library post • British history specialist joins Ursinus faculty • Instructor returns to Ursinus • Pa. Dutch Program is success • Instructor appointed to Biology Dept. • Lindback Award presented • Soccer season opens • Ursinus allies with area • Balloons! • Ursinus named a \u2776er • Register now! • Grads elect officers • Yes we can gang didn\u27t • NFC forecast • MAC report • F & M stings Bears 35 - 21https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1041/thumbnail.jp

Activation Status of Wnt/ß-Catenin Signaling in Normal and Neoplastic Breast Tissues: Relationship to HER2/neu Expression in Human and Mouse

Wnt/ß-catenin signaling is strongly implicated in neoplasia, but the role of this pathway in human breast cancer has been controversial. Here, we examined Wnt/ß-catenin pathway activation as a function of breast cancer progression, and tested for a relationship with HER2/neu expression, using a human tissue microarray comprising benign breast tissues, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), and invasive carcinomas. Cores were scored for membranous ß-catenin, a key functional component of adherens junctions, and for nucleocytoplasmic ß-catenin, a hallmark of Wnt/ß-catenin pathway activation. Only 82% of benign samples exhibited membrane-associated ß-catenin, indicating a finite frequency of false-negative staining. The frequency of membrane positivity was similar in DCIS samples, but was significantly reduced in carcinomas (45%, P<0.001), consistent with loss of adherens junctions during acquisition of invasiveness. Negative membrane status in cancers correlated with higher grade (P = 0.04) and estrogen receptor-negative status (P = 0.03), both indices of poor prognosis. Unexpectedly, a substantial frequency of nucleocytoplasmic ß-catenin was observed in benign breast tissues (36%), similar to that in carcinomas (35%). Positive-staining basal nuclei observed in benign breast may identify putative stem cells. An increased frequency of nucleocytoplasmic ß-catenin was observed in DCIS tumors (56%), suggesting that pathway activation may be an early event in human breast neoplasia. A correlation was observed between HER2/neu expression and nucleocytoplasmic ß-catenin in node-positive carcinomas (P = 0.02). Furthermore, cytoplasmic ß-catenin was detected in HER2/neu-induced mouse mammary tumors. The Axin2NLSlacZ mouse strain, a previously validated reporter of mammary Wnt/ß-catenin signaling, was utilized to define in vivo transcriptional consequences of HER2/neu-induced ß-catenin accumulation. Discrete hyperplastic foci observed in mammary glands from bigenic MMTV/neu, Axin2NLSlacZ mice, highlighted by robust ß-catenin/TCF signaling, likely represent the earliest stage of mammary intraepithelial neoplasia in MMTV/neu mice. Our study thus provides provocative evidence for Wnt/ß-catenin signaling as an early, HER2/neu-inducible event in breast neoplasia

Therapeutic response to peg-IFN-alpha-2b and ribavirin in HIV/HCV co-infected African-American and Caucasian patients as a function of HCV viral kinetics and interferon pharmacodynamics

In this study we sought to characterize the relationship between several pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) parameters and virologic responses among HIV/HCV genotype-1 co-infected patients receiving pegylated interferon-alpha-2b (peg-IFN2b) and ribavirin. We also tried to establish the underlying mechanisms that lead to poor SVR rates observed with African Americans (AA) against Caucasians and compared their results with those observed in a cohort of HCV mono-infected patients. Among our studied population, a viral decline of more than 1.0 log at day 3 combined with viral load of less than 5.0 log IU/ml at day 28 predicted SVR with NPV=100% and PPV=100%. AA had significantly (P<0.01) slower HCV VK as compared to Caucasians. However, peg-IFN2b concentrations and PK parameters, peg-IFN2b max and peg-IFN2b half-life, were similar in both groups and did not predict SVR. Nevertheless, the PD parameter Ec50, estimated from non-linear fitting of the viral kinetics together with peg-IFN2b concentration data, showed that HIV/HCV co-infected AA have lower sensitivity to interferon-alpha thus giving rise to slower viral decline. The combined PK/PD parameter IFNmax/Ec90 was excellent predictor of SVR, thus showing the importance to maintain peg-IFN2b levels above Ec90 to achieve successful treatment. Further studies are needed to evaluate whether these pharmacodynamical predictions are a result of differential host response to peg-IFN2b or other viral factors conferring relative resistance to peg-IFN2b

Current knowledge on the photoneuroendocrine regulation of reproduction in temperate fish species

Seasonality is an important adaptive trait in temperate fish species as it entrains or regulates most physiological events such as reproductive cycle, growth profile, locomotor activity and key life-stage transitions. Photoperiod is undoubtedly one of the most predictable environmental signals that can be used by most living organisms including fishes in temperate areas. This said, however, understanding of how such a simple signal can dictate the time of gonadal recruitment and spawning, for example, is a complex task. Over the past few decades, many scientists attempted to unravel the roots of photoperiodic signalling in teleosts by investigating the role of melatonin in reproduction, but without great success. In fact, the hormone melatonin is recognized as the biological time-keeping hormone in fishes mainly due to the fact that it reflects the seasonal variation in daylength across the whole animal kingdom rather than the existence of direct evidences of its role in the entrainment of reproduction in fishes. Recently, however, some new studies clearly suggested that melatonin interacts with the reproductive cascade at a number of key steps such as through the dopaminergic system in the brain or the synchronization of the final oocyte maturation in the gonad. Interestingly, in the past few years, additional pathways have become apparent in the search for a fish photoneuroendocrine system including the clock-gene network and kisspeptin signalling and although research on these topics are still in their infancy, it is moving at great pace. This review thus aims to bring together the current knowledge on the photic control of reproduction mainly focusing on seasonal temperate fish species and shape the current working hypotheses supported by recent findings obtained in teleosts or based on knowledge gathered in mammalian and avian species. Four of the main potential regulatory systems (light perception, melatonin, clock genes and kisspeptin) in fish reproduction are reviewed

International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortiu (INICC) report, data summary of 43 countries for 2007-2012. Device-associated module

We report the results of an International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) surveillance study from January 2007-December 2012 in 503 intensive care units (ICUs) in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. During the 6-year study using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) U.S. National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) definitions for device-associated health care–associated infection (DA-HAI), we collected prospective data from 605,310 patients hospitalized in the INICC's ICUs for an aggregate of 3,338,396 days. Although device utilization in the INICC's ICUs was similar to that reported from ICUs in the U.S. in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals: the pooled rate of central line–associated bloodstream infection in the INICC's ICUs, 4.9 per 1,000 central line days, is nearly 5-fold higher than the 0.9 per 1,000 central line days reported from comparable U.S. ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia was also higher (16.8 vs 1.1 per 1,000 ventilator days) as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (5.5 vs 1.3 per 1,000 catheter days). Frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas isolates to amikacin (42.8% vs 10%) and imipenem (42.4% vs 26.1%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (71.2% vs 28.8%) and imipenem (19.6% vs 12.8%) were also higher in the INICC's ICUs compared with the ICUs of the CDC's NHSN