Agents of Change - Continuing a Legacy

Students throughout their academic journeys become agents of change when they experience transformational learning. The students at Molloy College in conjunction with local non-profits have partnered to advance society with their field research. While the mission is fascinating for the assigned non-profit, what is truly amazing is how the capstone course shapes our students to become good citizens in our society. There are overarching rewards for all parties involved whether it be the students, faculty, members of the non-profit, and our community at large. Three consulting teams are created to address the most relatable charges to the assigned non-profit. However, what is truly happening behind the scenes is our students search for truth through their research while positively impacting this organization. If guided successfully, the three consulting teams actually build off of one another’s charges creating causational marketing plans that will assist the Board of this non-profit sustain incremental growth over time. These turnkey recommendations that are presented not only help to build the Foundation where future research could develop, but allows the students to become personally invested in this organization’s future. This promotes community and the building blocks of well-rounded young professionals upon graduation of their chosen degrees

Characterizing, modelling and understanding the climate variability of the deep water formation in the North-Western Mediterranean Sea

Observing, modelling and understanding the climate-scale variability of the deep water formation (DWF) in the North-Western Mediterranean Sea remains today very challenging. In this study, we first characterize the interannual variability of this phenomenon by a thorough reanalysis of observations in order to establish reference time series. These quantitative indicators include 31 observed years for the yearly maximum mixed layer depth over the period 1980–2013 and a detailed multi-indicator description of the period 2007–2013. Then a 1980–2013 hindcast simulation is performed with a fully-coupled regional climate system model including the high-resolution representation of the regional atmosphere, ocean, land-surface and rivers. The simulation reproduces quantitatively well the mean behaviour and the large interannual variability of the DWF phenomenon. The model shows convection deeper than 1000 m in 2/3 of the modelled winters, a mean DWF rate equal to 0.35 Sv with maximum values of 1.7 (resp. 1.6) Sv in 2013 (resp. 2005). Using the model results, the winter-integrated buoyancy loss over the Gulf of Lions is identified as the primary driving factor of the DWF interannual variability and explains, alone, around 50 % of its variance. It is itself explained by the occurrence of few stormy days during winter. At daily scale, the Atlantic ridge weather regime is identified as favourable to strong buoyancy losses and therefore DWF, whereas the positive phase of the North Atlantic oscillation is unfavourable. The driving role of the vertical stratification in autumn, a measure of the water column inhibition to mixing, has also been analyzed. Combining both driving factors allows to explain more than 70 % of the interannual variance of the phenomenon and in particular the occurrence of the five strongest convective years of the model (1981, 1999, 2005, 2009, 2013). The model simulates qualitatively well the trends in the deep waters (warming, saltening, increase in the dense water volume, increase in the bottom water density) despite an underestimation of the salinity and density trends. These deep trends come from a heat and salt accumulation during the 1980s and the 1990s in the surface and intermediate layers of the Gulf of Lions before being transferred stepwise towards the deep layers when very convective years occur in 1999 and later. The salinity increase in the near Atlantic Ocean surface layers seems to be the external forcing that finally leads to these deep trends. In the future, our results may allow to better understand the behaviour of the DWF phenomenon in Mediterranean Sea simulations in hindcast, forecast, reanalysis or future climate change scenario modes. The robustness of the obtained results must be however confirmed in multi-model studies

Pro-B cells propagated in stromal cell-free cultures reconstitute functional B-cell compartments in immunodeficient mice

Up to now long-term in vitro growth of pro-B cells was thought to require stromal cells. However, here we show that fetal liver (FL) and bone marrow (BM) derived pro-B cells can be propagated long-term in stromal cell-free cultures supplemented with IL-7, stem cell factor and FLT3 ligand. Within a week, most cells expressed surface CD19, CD79A, λ5, and VpreB antigens and had rearranged immunoglobulin D-J heavy chain genes. Both FL and BM pro-B cells reconstituted the B-cell compartments of immuno-incompetent Rag2-deficient mice, with FL pro-B cells generating follicular, marginal zone (MZB) and B1a B cells, and BM pro-B cells giving rise mainly to MZB cells. Reconstituted Rag2-deficient mice generated significant levels of IgM and IgG antibodies to a type II T-independent antigen; mice reconstituted with FL pro-B cells generated surprisingly high IgG1 titers. Finally, we show for the first time that mice reconstituted with mixtures of pro-B and pro-T cells propagated in stromal cell-free in vitro cultures mounted a T-cell-dependent antibody response. This novel stromal cell-free culture system facilitates our understanding of B-cell development and might be applied clinically.A.G.R. is holder of the chair in immunology endowed by L. Hoffmann – La Roche Ltd, Basel. This study was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. This project has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 315902. One author (Lilly von Muenchow) gratefully acknowledges receipt of a Marie Curie Research Fellowship. Antonius G. Rolink and Rhodri Ceredig are Partners within the Marie Curie Initial Training Network DECIDE (Decision-making within cells and differentiation entity therapies). R.C. was supported by Science Foundation Ireland under grant numbers SFI09/SRC/B1794 and SFI07/SK/B1233b. We would like to thank the members of the DBM-Microscopy Core Facility for their continuous support.peer-reviewed2017-12-2