Moving out of the Margins: Mattering and the International Student Experience

Deeply personal challenges confront all new students when they arrive at their college or university. Some of their core questions include: “Are we part of things; do we belong; are we central or marginal? Do we make a difference; do others care about us and make us feel we matter?” (Schlossberg, 1989, p. 6). For international students who may be marginalized by race, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic background or language, these questions can be particularly painful. This article recommends a new foundation for working with international students: mattering. It provides a theoretical background for the constructs of marginalization and mattering, examines their relevancy in the context of the experiences of international students, and begins to define strategies for colleges and universities to make international students feel that they do indeed matter

Physical Activity and Immunity in HIV-Infected Individuals

The purpose of this study was to determine what relationship exists among physical activity levels and viral load and CD4+ cell count in HIV-infected individuals. Increased viral load is associated with disease progression and symptom severity. A convenience sample of 66 male and female subjects between the ages of 18 and 64 years of age (mean 399/8) was recruited from a hospital-based HIV/AIDS clinic. Components of PA were assessed for three continuous days using a mini-motion logger wrist actigraph. These components included mean PA level, and PA index and acceleration index. Pearson’s correlational analysis was used to test the strength of association between PA components and viral load or CD4+ cell count. A significant inverse relationship was found between mean PA level and viral load (p=0.047). An inverse relationship was also observed between PA index and viral load (p=0.0061). Neither mean PA nor PA index scores correlated with CD4+ cell counts. Acceleration index, a measure of PA intensity, showed no correlation to viral load or CD4+ cell counts. These findings suggest that increasing levels of physical activity might have beneficial effects on viral load in HIV-infected individuals

Short-acting bronchodilators for the management of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the hospital setting: systematic review

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background: Currently, there is a lack of guidelines for the use of short-acting bronchodilators (SABD) in people admitted to hospital for acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD), despite routine use in practice and risk of cardiac adverse events. Aim: To review the evidence that underpins use and optimal dose, in terms of risk versus benefit, of SABD for inpatient management of AECOPD and collate the results for future guidelines. Methods: Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, clinicaltrials.gov and International Clinical Trials Registry Platform were searched (inception to November 2017) for published and ongoing studies. Included studies were randomised controlled trials or controlled clinical trials investigating the effect of SABD (β2-agonist and/or ipratropium) on inpatients with a diagnosis of AECOPD. This review was undertaken in accordance with PRISMA guidelines and a pre-defined protocol. Due to heterogeneous methodologies, meta-analysis was not possible so the results were synthesised qualitatively. Results: Of 1378 studies identified, 10 met inclusion criteria. Narrative synthesis of 10 studies revealed no significant differences in most outcomes of interest relative to dose, delivery via inhaler or nebuliser, and type of B2-agonist used. However, some evidence demonstrated significantly increased cardiac side effects with increased dosage of B2-agonist (45% versus 24%), P<0.05). Conclusion: This review identified a paucity of methodologically rigorous evidence evaluating use of SABD among AECOPD. The available evidence did not identify any additional benefits for participants receiving higher doses of short-acting B2-agonists compared to lower doses, or based on type of delivery method or B2-agonists used. However, there was a small increase in some adverse events for participants using higher doses of B2-agonists

Optics and Quantum Electronics

Contains reports on ten research projects.Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAALO3-86-K-0002)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 83-05448)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 83-10718)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 82-11650)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 84-13178)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 85-52701)US Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract AFOSR-85-0213)National Institutes of Health (Contract 5-RO1-GM35459)U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-86-K-0117

Immunochip analysis identifies multiple susceptibility loci for systemic sclerosis

In this study, 1,833 systemic sclerosis (SSc) cases and 3,466 controls were genotyped with the Immunochip array. Classical alleles, amino acid residues, and SNPs across the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region were imputed and tested. These analyses resulted in a model composed of six polymorphic amino acid positions and seven SNPs that explained the observed significant associations in the region. In addition, a replication step comprising 4,017 SSc cases and 5,935 controls was carried out for several selected non-HLA variants, reaching a total of 5,850 cases and 9,401 controls of European ancestry. Following this strategy, we identified and validated three SSc risk loci, including DNASE1L3 at 3p14, the SCHIP1-IL12A locus at 3q25, and ATG5 at 6q21, as well as a suggested association of the TREH-DDX6 locus at 11q23. The associations of several previously reported SSc risk loci were validated and further refined, and the observed peak of association in PXK was related to DNASE1L3. Our study has increased the number of known genetic associations with SSc, provided further insight into the pleiotropic effects of shared autoimmune risk factors, and highlighted the power of dense mapping for detecting previously overlooked susceptibility loci

The Fossil Calibration Database—A New Resource for Divergence Dating

Fossils provide the principal basis for temporal calibrations, which are critical to the accuracy of divergence dating analyses. Translating fossil data into minimum and maximum bounds for calibrations is the most important—often least appreciated—step of divergence dating. Properly justified calibrations require the synthesis of phylogenetic, paleontological, and geological evidence and can be difficult for nonspecialists to formulate. The dynamic nature of the fossil record (e.g., new discoveries, taxonomic revisions, updates of global or local stratigraphy) requires that calibration data be updated continually lest they become obsolete. Here, we announce the Fossil Calibration Database (http://fossilcalibrations.org), a new open-access resource providing vetted fossil calibrations to the scientific community. Calibrations accessioned into this database are based on individual fossil specimens and follow best practices for phylogenetic justification and geochronological constraint. The associated Fossil Calibration Series, a calibration-themed publication series at Palaeontologia Electronica, will serve as a key pipeline for peer-reviewed calibrations to enter the databas

Climatic and geographic predictors of life history variation in Eastern Massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus): A range-wide synthesis

Elucidating how life history traits vary geographically is important to understanding variation in population dynamics. Because many aspects of ectotherm life history are climate-dependent, geographic variation in climate is expected to have a large impact on population dynamics through effects on annual survival, body size, growth rate, age at first reproduction, size-fecundity relationship, and reproductive frequency. The Eastern Massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus) is a small, imperiled North American rattlesnake with a distribution centered on the Great Lakes region, where lake effects strongly influence local conditions. To address Eastern Massasauga life history data gaps, we compiled data from 47 study sites representing 38 counties across the range. We used multimodel inference and general linear models with geographic coordinates and annual climate normals as explanatory variables to clarify patterns of variation in life history traits. We found strong evidence for geographic variation in six of nine life history variables. Adult female snout-vent length and neonate mass increased with increasing mean annual precipitation. Litter size decreased with increasing mean temperature, and the size-fecundity relationship and growth prior to first hibernation both increased with increasing latitude. The proportion of gravid females also increased with increasing latitude, but this relationship may be the result of geographically varying detection bias. Our results provide insights into ectotherm life history variation and fill critical data gaps, which will inform Eastern Massasauga conservation efforts by improving biological realism for models of population viability and climate change

Identification of a CpG Island Methylator Phenotype that Defines a Distinct Subgroup of Glioma

SummaryWe have profiled promoter DNA methylation alterations in 272 glioblastoma tumors in the context of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We found that a distinct subset of samples displays concerted hypermethylation at a large number of loci, indicating the existence of a glioma-CpG island methylator phenotype (G-CIMP). We validated G-CIMP in a set of non-TCGA glioblastomas and low-grade gliomas. G-CIMP tumors belong to the proneural subgroup, are more prevalent among lower-grade gliomas, display distinct copy-number alterations, and are tightly associated with IDH1 somatic mutations. Patients with G-CIMP tumors are younger at the time of diagnosis and experience significantly improved outcome. These findings identify G-CIMP as a distinct subset of human gliomas on molecular and clinical grounds

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

The Enterovirus 71 A-particle Forms a Gateway to Allow Genome Release: A CryoEM Study of Picornavirus Uncoating

Since its discovery in 1969, enterovirus 71 (EV71) has emerged as a serious worldwide health threat. This human pathogen of the picornavirus family causes hand, foot, and mouth disease, and also has the capacity to invade the central nervous system to cause severe disease and death. Upon binding to a host receptor on the cell surface, the virus begins a two-step uncoating process, first forming an expanded, altered "A-particle", which is primed for genome release. In a second step after endocytosis, an unknown trigger leads to RNA expulsion, generating an intact, empty capsid. Cryo-electron microscopy reconstructions of these two capsid states provide insight into the mechanics of genome release. The EV71 A-particle capsid interacts with the genome near the icosahedral two-fold axis of symmetry, which opens to the external environment via a channel ~10 Å in diameter that is lined with patches of negatively charged residues. After the EV71 genome has been released, the two-fold channel shrinks, though the overall capsid dimensions are conserved. These structural characteristics identify the two-fold channel as the site where a gateway forms and regulates the process of genome release. © 2013 Shingler et al