Jen Schaefer’s 2021 Induction Ceremony Address: Astrocytes, Allostasis and the Liberal Arts

This is the 12th cohort of students who have been inducted into the chapter, which now counts just under 800 members. Jennifer Schaefer, associate professor of biology and the department chair at CSB/SJU who received Phi Beta Kappa recognition while attending St. Olaf College as an undergraduate student, speaks on “Astrocytes, Allostasis and the Liberal Arts” about the importance of the liberal arts for scientific advancement and in students’ lives as they leave CSB/SJU. The group includes 42 seniors and 11 juniors, and they represent five countries and 11 states. Those selected are Phi Beta Kappa members for life, and received a certificate to honor their achievement. In addition to the 53 students in the 2021 Phi Beta Kappa cohort, 10 students who were juniors in the 2020 cohort were recognized as well. The ceremony for the 2020 cohort was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students are chosen based on their grade-point average (3.85 for juniors, 3.65 for seniors) and must be a liberal arts and/or sciences major. The selection committee also looked at the breadth and depth of the student’s program and other achievements, such as a thesis or other research; interest in other cultures or languages; extracurricular activities; and academic performance. Delegates from more than 200 chapters and associations of Phi Beta Kappa voted to establish the chapter at CSB and SJU Oct. 2, 2009, during their Triennial Council in Austin, Texas. The CSB and SJU chapter was the eighth Phi Beta Kappa chapter established in Minnesota at the time and was named \u27Theta\u27 after the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet. In 2010, the Theta Chapter inducted 81 CSB and SJU students into its first cohort

Universal deformation rings and tame blocks

Let k be an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic, and let W be the ring of infinite Witt vectors over k. Suppose G is a finite group and B is a block of kG of infinite tame representation type. We find all finitely generated kG-modules V that belong to B and whose endomorphism ring is isomorphic to k and determine the universal deformation ring R(G,V) for each of these modules.Comment: 14 page

N-mAb: A case study supoorting adoption of integrated continuous bioprocesses

Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Renal Artery Stent Fatigue Test

In today’s world of medical innovation, regulations and requirements set by organizations such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and ASTM International (American Society for Testing and Materials) can inhibit rapid innovation by demanding rigorous testing of new designs. For arterial stents, the standard is that each design must be tested to simulate 10 years of life in an environment congruent to an in vivo environment. Endologix in Irvine, California develops and manufactures minimally invasive treatments for aortic diseases, with a focus on stent grafts for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). Stents which are deployed in the renal arteries undergo continuous displacement due to respiratory, cardiac, and skeletal motion. This motion is unique and methods for simulating stents near the heart would be misapplied to renal artery stent fatigue testing. Our team was comprised of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineers from Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo, and the goal for our senior project team was to design a functioning fatigue test method for renal artery stents that would simulate the environment and displacement of the stents in the body. This document is a final project report that defines the design requirements, explains how we determined appropriate modeling of renal artery movement, describes our design process, and outlines the timeline for our entire project. The project concluded with a proof of concept fatigue test of Endologix renal artery stents at the highest frequency our team was able to achieve

That Water Stinks! Will Changes in Water Quality Alter Blue Crab Response to Pesticides?

Nathan Hammond, Allen Schaefer, and Sophie Bott are students in Biological Sciences at Louisiana Tech University. Jennifer M. Hill is an Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences at Louisiana Tech University

Ruptured Splenic Artery Aneurysm: Rare Cause of Shock Diagnosed with Bedside Ultrasound

Splenic artery aneurysm rupture is rare and potentially fatal. It has largely been reported in pregnant patients and typically not diagnosed until laparotomy. This case reports a constellation of clinical and sonographic findings that may lead clinicians to rapidly diagnose ruptured splenic artery aneurysm at the bedside. We also propose a rapid, but systematic sonographic approach to patients with atraumatic hemoperitoneum causing shock. It is yet another demonstration of the utility of bedside ultrasound in critically ill patients, specifically with undifferentiated shock

Community-Derived Core Concepts for Neuroscience Higher Education

Core concepts provide a framework for organizing facts and understanding in neuroscience higher education curricula. Core concepts are overarching principles that identify patterns in neuroscience processes and phenomena and can be used as a foundational scaffold for neuroscience knowledge. The need for community-derived core concepts is pressing, because both the pace of research and number of neuroscience programs are rapidly expanding. While general biology and many subdisciplines within biology have identified core concepts, neuroscience has yet to establish a community-derived set of core concepts for neuroscience higher education. We used an empirical approach involving more than 100 neuroscience educators to identify a list of core concepts. The process of identifying neuroscience core concepts was modeled after the process used to develop physiology core concepts and involved a nationwide survey and a working session of 103 neuroscience educators. The iterative process identified eight core concepts and accompanying explanatory paragraphs. The eight core concepts are abbreviated as communication modalities, emergence, evolution, gene–environment interactions, information processing, nervous system functions, plasticity, and structure–function. Here, we describe the pedagogical research process used to establish core concepts for the neuroscience field and provide examples on how the core concepts can be embedded in neuroscience education

Editorial: Women in Science: Chemistry

Following UNESCO’s official celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Frontiers in Chemistry decided to run a special issue “Women in Science: Chemistry”. Indeed, although science and gender equality are essential to ensure sustainable development, less than 30% of researchers worldwide are women