Somsen Hall Mural Context: The Founding of Winona and the Somsen Hall WPA Mural

Winona State University is situated on Mni Sota Makoce, the ancestral lands of the Dakota Oyate. We acknowledge and honor the Dakota Nations and the sacred land of all Indigenous peoples, and we strive to give that acknowledgement meaning by working with Indigenous people and nations whenever possible. In 2017, two analyses of the Somsen Hall mural were commissioned. The two documents were written by Iyekiyapiwin Darlene St. Clair, Associate Professor, Saint Cloud State University and Jill Ahlberg-Yohe, Associate Curator of Native American Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, respectively. The Somsen Hall mural, painted in 1938 by John Martin Socha, was covered with cloth coverings in 2020. The mural is currently not viewable by the public in Somsen Hall. The mural imagery is historically inaccurate and deeply hurtful to Indigenous peoples. Conversations led by Dr. Cindy Killion, Faculty Emerita, visiting scholars with relevant expertise, student groups, faculty and staff committees, and the Oceti Ŝakowiŋ led to the decision to cover the mural. The mural will be preserved, yet hidden from public view. Images are available for continued discussion and learning opportunities surrounding equity and bias. The WSU community and partnering communities will determine further steps to address the mural’s content.https://openriver.winona.edu/universityartcollectiondocuments/1000/thumbnail.jp

Large-scale genome sampling reveals unique immunity and metabolic adaptations in bats

SCV was supported by a Max Planck Research Group awarded by the Max Planck Gesellschaft, a Human Frontiers Science Program Grant (RGP0058/2016) and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/T021985/1).Comprising more than 1,400 species, bats possess adaptations unique among mammals including powered flight, unexpected longevity, and extraordinary immunity. Some of the molecular mechanisms underlying these unique adaptations includes DNA repair, metabolism and immunity. However, analyses have been limited to a few divergent lineages, reducing the scope of inferences on gene family evolution across the Order Chiroptera. We conducted an exhaustive comparative genomic study of 37 bat species, one generated in this study, encompassing a large number of lineages, with a particular emphasis on multi-gene family evolution across immune and metabolic genes. In agreement with previous analyses, we found lineage-specific expansions of the APOBEC3 and MHC-I gene families, and loss of the proinflammatory PYHIN gene family. We inferred more than 1,000 gene losses unique to bats, including genes involved in the regulation of inflammasome pathways such as epithelial defence receptors, the natural killer gene complex and the interferon-gamma induced pathway. Gene set enrichment analyses revealed genes lost in bats are involved in defence response against pathogen-associated molecular patterns and damage-associated molecular patterns. Gene family evolution and selection analyses indicate bats have evolved fundamental functional differences compared to other mammals in both innate and adaptive immune system, with the potential to enhance antiviral immune response while dampening inflammatory signalling. In addition, metabolic genes have experienced repeated expansions related to convergent shifts to plant-based diets. Our analyses support the hypothesis that, in tandem with flight, ancestral bats had evolved a unique set of immune adaptations whose functional implications remain to be explored.PostprintPeer reviewe

Toll-like receptor 4 signaling in liver injury and hepatic fibrogenesis

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are a family of transmembrane pattern recognition receptors (PRR) that play a key role in innate and adaptive immunity by recognizing structural components unique to bacteria, fungi and viruses. TLR4 is the most studied of the TLRs, and its primary exogenous ligand is lipopolysaccharide, a component of Gram-negative bacterial walls. In the absence of exogenous microbes, endogenous ligands including damage-associated molecular pattern molecules from damaged matrix and injured cells can also activate TLR4 signaling. In humans, single nucleotide polymorphisms of the TLR4 gene have an effect on its signal transduction and on associated risks of specific diseases, including cirrhosis. In liver, TLR4 is expressed by all parenchymal and non-parenchymal cell types, and contributes to tissue damage caused by a variety of etiologies. Intact TLR4 signaling was identified in hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), the major fibrogenic cell type in injured liver, and mediates key responses including an inflammatory phenotype, fibrogenesis and anti-apoptotic properties. Further clarification of the function and endogenous ligands of TLR4 signaling in HSCs and other liver cells could uncover novel mechanisms of fibrogenesis and facilitate the development of therapeutic strategies

Descriptive Analyses of Two Late Prehistoric Burials From Southwestern Idaho

Data relating to prehistoric human skeletal material from the northern cultural Great Basin are scant, especially for the period dating within the last 2,000 years. Recent discoveries of two separate prehistoric inhumations in southwestern Idaho resulted in professional data recovery efforts by the Idaho State Historical Society. The radiometric assessments of the remains place the date of the interments at approximately 900 and 1,300 years ago. Descriptions of each burial and associated artifacts serve as a baseline for future studies in human paleobiology in this region