South Asian Americans in Higher Education: Background and Future Directions

South Asian Americans are one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the United States. Though research has broadly attended to Asian Americans as an aggregate racial or ethnic group, calls to specify the complex experiences and identities within this group have increased. This is particularly true for South Asian Americans, or Desi, groups as their ethnic and cultural identities have been increasingly scrutinized and racialized since September 11th. This backgrounder discusses South Asian Americans within higher educational institutions. More specifically, I provide an overview of identity development models, contextualize their unique challenges, and relate these models to South Asian Americans. The backgrounder concludes by outlining opportunities for supporting South Asian American students in higher education.Educatio

The distribution function of a semiflexible polymer and random walks with constraints

In studying the end-to-end distribution function $G(r,N)$ of a worm like chain by using the propagator method we have established that the combinatorial problem of counting the paths contributing to $G(r,N)$ can be mapped onto the problem of random walks with constraints, which is closely related to the representation theory of the Temperley-Lieb algebra. By using this mapping we derive an exact expression of the Fourier-Laplace transform of the distribution function, $G(k,p)$, as a matrix element of an inverse of an infinite rank matrix. Using this result we also derived a recursion relation permitting to compute $G(k,p)$ directly. We present the results of the computation of $G(k,N)$ and its moments. The moments $$ of $$ can be calculated \emph{exactly} by calculating the (1,1) matrix element of $2n$-th power of a truncated matrix of rank $n+1$.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, added a referenc

Binge-Like Alcohol Exposure During Adolescence Disrupts Dopaminergic Neurotransmission in the Adult Prelimbic Cortex

Repeated binge-like exposure to alcohol during adolescence has been reported to perturb prefrontal cortical development, yet the mechanisms underlying these effects are unknown. Here we report that adolescent intermittent ethanol exposure induces cellular and dopaminergic abnormalities in the adult prelimbic cortex (PrL-C). Exposing rats to alcohol during early-mid adolescence (PD28–42) increased the density of long/thin dendritic spines of layer 5 pyramidal neurons in the adult PrL-C. Interestingly, although AIE exposure did not alter the expression of glutamatergic proteins in the adult PrL-C, there was a pronounced reduction in dopamine (DA) D1 receptor modulation of both intrinsic firing and evoked NMDA currents in pyramidal cells, whereas D2 receptor function was unaltered. Recordings from fast-spiking interneurons also revealed that AIE reduced intrinsic excitability, glutamatergic signaling, and D1 receptor modulation of these cells. Analysis of PrL-C tissue of AIE-exposed rats further revealed persistent changes in the expression of DA-related proteins, including reductions in the expression of tyrosine hydroxylase and catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT). AIE exposure was associated with hypermethylation of the COMT promoter at a conserved CpG site in exon II. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that AIE exposure disrupts DA and GABAergic transmission in the adult medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). As DA and GABA work in concert to shape and synchronize neuronal ensembles in the PFC, these alterations could contribute to deficits in behavioral control and decision-making in adults who abused alcohol during adolescence

Asymptotic Improvement of Resummation and Perturbative Predictions in Quantum Field Theory

The improvement of resummation algorithms for divergent perturbative expansions in quantum field theory by asymptotic information about perturbative coefficients is investigated. Various asymptotically optimized resummation prescriptions are considered. The improvement of perturbative predictions beyond the reexpansion of rational approximants is discussed.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX, 3 tables; title shortened; typographical errors corrected; minor changes of style; 2 references adde

Intraperitoneal delivery of paclitaxel by poly(ether-anhydride) microspheres effectively suppresses tumor growth in a murine metastatic ovarian cancer model

Intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy is more effective than systemic chemotherapy for treating advanced ovarian cancer, but is typically associated with severe complications due to high dose, frequent administration schedule, and use of non-biocompatible excipients/delivery vehicles. Here, we developed paclitaxel (PTX)-loaded microspheres composed of di-block copolymers of poly(ethylene glycol) and poly(sebacic acid) (PEG-PSA) for safe and sustained IP chemotherapy. PEG-PSA microspheres provided efficient loading (∼13 % w/w) and prolonged release (∼13 days) of PTX. In a murine ovarian cancer model, a single dose of IP PTX/PEG-PSA particles effectively suppressed tumor growth for more than 40 days and extended the median survival time to 75 days compared to treatments with Taxol® (47 days) or IP placebo particles (34 days). IP PTX/PEG-PSA was well tolerated with only minimal to mild inflammation. Our findings support PTX/PEG-PSA microspheres as a promising drug delivery platform for IP therapy of ovarian cancer and potentially other metastatic peritoneal cancers

The Mouse Gastrointestinal Bacteria Catalogue enables translation between the mouse and human gut microbiotas via functional mapping.

Funder: Royal SocietyHuman health and disease have increasingly been shown to be impacted by the gut microbiota, and mouse models are essential for investigating these effects. However, the compositions of human and mouse gut microbiotas are distinct, limiting translation of microbiota research between these hosts. To address this, we constructed the Mouse Gastrointestinal Bacteria Catalogue (MGBC), a repository of 26,640 high-quality mouse microbiota-derived bacterial genomes. This catalog enables species-level analyses for mapping functions of interest and identifying functionally equivalent taxa between the microbiotas of humans and mice. We have complemented this with a publicly deposited collection of 223 bacterial isolates, including 62 previously uncultured species, to facilitate experimental investigation of individual commensal bacteria functions in vitro and in vivo. Together, these resources provide the ability to identify and test functionally equivalent members of the host-specific gut microbiotas of humans and mice and support the informed use of mouse models in human microbiota research.Sir Henry Dale Fellowship jointly funded by Wellcome Trust and Royal Society [206245/Z/17/Z]. Rosetrees Trust [A2194]. Wellcome Trust [098051]