A Virtuous Circle of Student Engagement: The Tech Corner

How can a culture of student innovation and interdisciplinary creativity be fostered when library facilities and / or budget do not accommodate a maker space? We allowed students to help develop a new collection of devices and equipment, the Tech Corner, launched in early 2016. We seek to provide ready access to unique, easy-to-use devices that support creativity, curricular work and recreation but may be too expensive for our average student to purchase. Student focus groups helped design the branding, marketing, and a starter collection of items that include virtual reality headsets, digital art brushes, tablet-compatible MIDI keyboards, digital microscopes, cameras, and pocket projectors. Liberal loan periods encourage off-campus, longer-term use, and circulation is limited to student account types. We plan to refresh the collection annually with new, student-recommended devices. We are building a virtuous circle of student engagement in a variety of ways. Students who complete a survey about each device receive promotional items and are registered in a prize raffle. Users are encouraged to share what they create for displays on our website and in library buildings. A website allows students to learn about the items, see how other students have used them, complete the survey, and sign up for email news. Polls circulated throughout the academic year via the website and social media will allow students to suggest and vote for new collection items. Assessment will include circulation statistics for this and other media items, survey feedback, and use-case submissions. Assessment data is in the attached supplemental file

Creating a Virtuous Circle of Student Engagement with the Tech Corner

While many academic libraries have followed the public library lead in developing maker-spaces, not all libraries have the money or space to dedicate to such large-scale operations. This case study explores a different approach to engaging users with new technology and investigates how to support their creativity without a costly investment in space and staffing. It demonstrates not only how students can be provided a virtual space to explore technology equipment, but also how their opinions can be leveraged for growing the collection and creating training materials

Inclusive and Anti-Racist Collecting at UNLV: Draft Report and Recommendations

The UNLV University Libraries recognizes that as both a direct and indirect result of colonialism and white supremacy the historical and contemporary scholarly publishing market atypically centers and prioritizes voices that are white, male, Christian, able-bodied, and heterosexual (Muka, 2018; Ray, 2018; Baffoe, Asimeng-Boahene, & Buster, 2014; and Buggs, Sims, & Kramer, 2020). In an attempt to redress this imbalance, the UNLV University Libraries is committed to collecting content by and about people and communities that have historically been excluded. This effort includes but is not limited to the intentional collection of materials about and by groups historically excluded by virtue of their ethnicity, race, religion, sexuality, gender, physical ability, mental ability, language, and nationality

Human Mas-related G protein-coupled receptors-X1 induce chemokine receptor 2 expression in rat dorsal root ganglia neurons and release of chemokine ligand 2 from the human LAD-2 mast cell line

Primate-specific Mas-related G protein-coupled receptors-X1 (MRGPR-X1) are highly enriched in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons and induce acute pain. Herein, we analyzed effects of MRGPR-X1 on serum response factors (SRF) or nuclear factors of activated T cells (NFAT), which control expression of various markers of chronic pain. Using HEK293, DRG neuron-derived F11 cells and cultured rat DRG neurons recombinantly expressing human MRGPR-X1, we found activation of a SRF reporter gene construct and induction of the early growth response protein-1 via extracellular signal-regulated kinases-1/2 known to play a significant role in the development of inflammatory pain. Furthermore, we observed MRGPR-X1-induced up-regulation of the chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2) via NFAT, which is considered as a key event in the onset of neuropathic pain and, so far, has not yet been described for any endogenous neuropeptide. Up-regulation of CCR2 is often associated with increased release of its endogenous agonist chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2). We also found MRGPR-X1-promoted release of CCL2 in a human connective tissue mast cell line endogenously expressing MRGPR-X1. Thus, we provide first evidence to suggest that MRGPR-X1 induce expression of chronic pain markers in DRG neurons and propose a so far unidentified signaling circuit that enhances chemokine signaling by acting on two distinct yet functionally co-operating cell types. Given the important role of chemokine signaling in pain chronification, we propose that interruption of this signaling circuit might be a promising new strategy to alleviate chemokine-promoted pain

Adaptive tuning functions arise from visual observation of past movement

Visual observation of movement plays a key role in action. For example, tennis players have little time to react to the ball, but still need to prepare the appropriate stroke. Therefore, it might be useful to use visual information about the ball trajectory to recall a specific motor memory. Past visual observation of movement (as well as passive and active arm movement) affects the learning and recall of motor memories. Moreover, when passive or active, these past contextual movements exhibit generalization (or tuning) across movement directions. Here we extend this work, examining whether visual motion also exhibits similar generalization across movement directions and whether such generalization functions can explain patterns of interference. Both the adaptation movement and contextual movement exhibited generalization beyond the training direction, with the visual contextual motion exhibiting much broader tuning. A second experiment demonstrated that this pattern was consistent with the results of an interference experiment where opposing force fields were associated with two separate visual movements. Overall, our study shows that visual contextual motion exhibits much broader (and shallower) tuning functions than previously seen for either passive or active movements, demonstrating that the tuning characteristics of past motion are highly dependent on their sensory modality

Differential Modulation of Beta-Adrenergic Receptor Signaling by Trace Amine-Associated Receptor 1 Agonists

Trace amine-associated receptors (TAAR) are rhodopsin-like G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR). TAAR are involved in modulation of neuronal, cardiac and vascular functions and they are potentially linked with neurological disorders like schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease. Subtype TAAR1, the best characterized TAAR so far, is promiscuous for a wide set of ligands and is activated by trace amines tyramine (TYR), phenylethylamine (PEA), octopamine (OA), but also by thyronamines, dopamine, and psycho-active drugs. Unfortunately, effects of trace amines on signaling of the two homologous β-adrenergic receptors 1 (ADRB1) and 2 (ADRB2) have not been clarified yet in detail. We, therefore, tested TAAR1 agonists TYR, PEA and OA regarding their effects on ADRB1/2 signaling by co-stimulation studies. Surprisingly, trace amines TYR and PEA are partial allosteric antagonists at ADRB1/2, whereas OA is a partial orthosteric ADRB2-antagonist and ADRB1-agonist. To specify molecular reasons for TAAR1 ligand promiscuity and for observed differences in signaling effects on particular aminergic receptors we compared TAAR, tyramine (TAR) octopamine (OAR), ADRB1/2 and dopamine receptors at the structural level. We found especially for TAAR1 that the remarkable ligand promiscuity is likely based on high amino acid similarity in the ligand-binding region compared with further aminergic receptors. On the other hand few TAAR specific properties in the ligand-binding site might determine differences in ligand-induced effects compared to ADRB1/2. Taken together, this study points to molecular details of TAAR1-ligand promiscuity and identified specific trace amines as allosteric or orthosteric ligands of particular β-adrenergic receptor subtypes