Two-Year College Faculty Perspectives On Developmental Student Persistence: A Case Study

This study sought to understand the perspectives of two-year college composition faculty concerning the persistence of students in their developmental composition courses. Research has shown that developmental students are a population at risk for leaving college before completing their degree programs and that students are more likely to persist to reach their goals when they’ve built meaningful connections with faculty. Many factors affect faculty ability to connect with developmental students such as faculty history, teaching preparation, and work load. This study answered four research questions: 1) how do faculty describe and perceive their experience in encouraging developmental students to persist? 2) How do faculty recognize and understand the needs of developmental students? 3) How do faculty understand their preparedness for teaching developmental students? 4) What factors (if any) in regards to faculty working conditions do faculty perceive to affect their ability to help developmental students persist? The researcher conducted interviews of thirteen developmental composition faculty at a two-year college using the qualitative case study method to determine how faculty perceived their efforts to help developmental students persist. From this case study, four major themes regarding faculty perspectives emerged: 1) faculty workload impacted experience and engagement with developmental students, 2) faculty placed high importance on hands-on training, 3) faculty history influenced their professional practice, and 4) faculty provided students with emotional and cognitive support. From these themes, the researcher determined the following recommendations: consider ways that developmental composition faculty can better support student persistence when building professional development opportunities for the department; develop more in-depth pre-service programs and mentoring opportunities for developmental composition instructors, especially for new teachers and adjuncts; re-examine placement and possibly co-requisite “studio” approach for developmental students scoring just below the college level cutoff in placement tests; when hiring new faculty, weigh their teaching experiences and motivations as heavily as their graduate degree specialty and publications; advocate for policy changes at the state, college, and department level that support the success of developmental students; encourage opportunities for classroom discussion regarding race, class, gender, and educational equality in support of social justice and equitable change in the college and surrounding community. This study adds to a growing body of research connecting faculty working conditions and teaching preparation with student persistence

Analysis of the Ex Vivo and In Vivo Antiretroviral Activity of Gemcitabine

Replication of retroviral and host genomes requires ribonucleotide reductase to convert rNTPs to dNTPs, which are then used as substrates for DNA synthesis. Inhibition of ribonucleotide reductase by hydroxyurea (HU) has been previously used to treat cancers as well as HIV. However, the use of HU as an antiretroviral is limited by its associated toxicities such as myelosuppression and hepatotoxicity. In this study, we examined the ribonucleotide reductase inhibitor, gemcitabine, both in cell culture and in C57Bl/6 mice infected with LP-BM5 murine leukemia virus (LP-BM5 MuLV, a murine AIDS model). Gemcitabine decreased infectivity of MuLV in cell culture with an EC50 in the low nanomolar range with no detectable cytotoxicity. Similarly, gemcitabine significantly decreased disease progression in mice infected with LP-BM5. Specifically, gemcitabine treatment decreased spleen size, plasma IgM, and provirus levels compared to LP-BM5 MuLV infected, untreated mice. Gemcitabine efficacy was observed at doses as low as 1 mg/kg/day in the absence of toxicity. Higher doses of gemcitabine (3 mg/kg/day and higher) were associated with toxicity as determined by a loss in body mass. In summary, our findings demonstrate that gemcitabine has antiretroviral activity ex vivo and in vivo in the LP-BM5 MuLV model. These observations together with a recent ex vivo study with HIV-1[1], suggest that gemcitabine has broad antiretroviral activity and could be particularly useful in vivo when used in combination drug therapy

Skunk River Review Fall 1995, Vol 7

https://openspace.dmacc.edu/skunkriver/1016/thumbnail.jp

SLC35A2â CDG: Functional characterization, expanded molecular, clinical, and biochemical phenotypes of 30 unreported Individuals

Pathogenic de novo variants in the Xâ linked gene SLC35A2 encoding the major Golgiâ localized UDPâ galactose transporter required for proper protein and lipid glycosylation cause a rare type of congenital disorder of glycosylation known as SLC35A2â congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG; formerly CDGâ IIm). To date, 29 unique de novo variants from 32 unrelated individuals have been described in the literature. The majority of affected individuals are primarily characterized by varying degrees of neurological impairments with or without skeletal abnormalities. Surprisingly, most affected individuals do not show abnormalities in serum transferrin Nâ glycosylation, a common biomarker for most types of CDG. Here we present data characterizing 30 individuals and add 26 new variants, the single largest study involving SLC35A2â CDG. The great majority of these individuals had normal transferrin glycosylation. In addition, expanding the molecular and clinical spectrum of this rare disorder, we developed a robust and reliable biochemical assay to assess SLC35A2â dependent UDPâ galactose transport activity in primary fibroblasts. Finally, we show that transport activity is directly correlated to the ratio of wildâ type to mutant alleles in fibroblasts from affected individuals.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150498/1/humu23731_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150498/2/humu23731-sup-0001-Supp_Mat__2019.2.10_.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150498/3/humu23731.pd

Gemcitabine inhibits MuLV replication in cell culture in the absence of toxicity.

<p><b>1A</b>. Infectivity of MuLV. MuLV containing GFP were produced from 293T cells and used to infect U373-MAGI-CXCR4_CEM cells that were treated with the indicated concentrations of gemcitabine. The data represents the average ± SD of three independent experiments. <b>1B</b>. Toxicity of gemcitabine in U373-MAGI-CXCR4_CEM cells treated with the indicated concentrations of gemcitabine. The data represents the average ± SD of three independent experiments.</p

Serum IgM levels from mice infected with LP-BM5 MuLV.

<p>Each symbol (circles, squares and triangles) represent one animal. Treatment groups labeled with different letters are not statistically different from one another while treatment groups labeled with different letters are statistically different as determined by One-Way ANOVA with Tukey-Kramer post-test p<0.05. n = 4 for both the untreated groups, n = 7 for animals treated with 1 mg/kg/day, and n = 5 for animals treated with 2 mg/kg/day gemcitabine.</p

Change in body weights of mice infected with LP-BM5 MuLV and treated with the indicated doses of gemcitabine.

<p>Each symbol (triangles, squares, circles, diamonds, and hatch marks) represent one mouse. The average ± SD is shown for each treatment group.</p

Treatment groups for ex vivo analysis of gemcitabine^*.

<p>*Treatment Groups, number of animals at the start of the study and the number of animals surviving at the end of the study.</p

Histopathological analysis of spleen from gemcitabine-treated animals infected with LP-BM5.^*

<p>*Sections of spleen were analyzed as described in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0015840#s4" target="_blank">Materials and Methods</a>. NSF =  no significant findings; R =  reactive, Ab = Abnormal composition; D =  depleted white pulp. NC  =  tissue was not collected. Score of 3  =  high pathology; score of 2  =  intermediate pathology; score of 1  =  low degree of pathology. Each box corresponds to a different animal.</p