An evaluation of a brief psycho-educational intervention for exam stress with extended degree programme students

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-53).Overseas research has shown that minority university students are at special risk for stress. South Africa’s race-based history of educational discrimination means that black students are multiply disadvantaged at formerly white universities. Many interventions around disadvantaged students have been reframed in terms of retention difficulties. In 2009, a psycho- educational support group was run with first year humanities Extended Degree Programme students. This study was a qualitative evaluation of the group. We found that the group was successful in giving students social support. Students also felt that it had been useful academically. Issues that should be addressed include clear avenues for referral and improving student/facilitator interaction. The stress and the academic demotivation that they experience suggest that the whole support programme should be evaluated and improved

The Uneventful Life

Dimensions: 30 inches wide, 36 inches tallInkjet on matte paper, printed on both sides Artist\u27s narrative: Letter 85 provides Paul Laurence Dunbar’s negative viewpoint on his successes. Although we are unsure who he is writing to, he writes of his accomplishments from early childhood to the present and calls it all uneventful. He starts off by mentioning how he was only published at age 14 and quickly calls it positive trash. He continues to discuss how he was widely loved in high school and was the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, but he wrote the paper a month late every time. After high school, he began work as an elevator operator. There he wrote his first book, which he notes only sold well within his town. Dunbar seems to be fine talking about his achievements but cannot help to add in negative comments about himself and his work when he is so blatantly talented. This negative viewpoint he casts on himself is metaphorically depicted with the extreme modulation of the typeface Freight by Joshua Darden and is accompanied by the typeface Ingra by Ermin Mededovic.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/stu_vad_dunbarletters/1017/thumbnail.jp

Flowering Times of Wild Arabidopsis Accessions From Across Norway Correlate With Expression Levels of FT, CO, and FLC Genes

Temperate species often require or flower most rapidly in the long daylengths, or photoperiods, experienced in summer or after prolonged periods of cold temperatures, referred to as vernalization. Yet, even within species, plants vary in the degree of responsiveness to these cues. In Arabidopsis thaliana, CONSTANS (CO) and FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) genes are key to photoperiod and vernalization perception and antagonistically regulate FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) to influence the flowering time of the plants. However, it is still an open question as to how these genes vary in their interactions among wild accessions with different flowering behaviors and adapted to different microclimates, yet this knowledge could improve our ability to predict plant responses in variable natural conditions. To assess the relationships among these genes and to flowering time, we exposed 10 winter-annual Arabidopsis accessions from throughout Norway, ranging from early to late flowering, along with two summer-annual accessions to 14 weeks of vernalization and either 8- or 19-h photoperiods to mimic Norwegian climate conditions, then assessed gene expression levels 3-, 5-, and 8-days post vernalization. CO and FLC explained both FT levels and flowering time (days) but not rosette leaf number at flowering. The correlation between FT and flowering time increased over time. Although vernalization suppresses FLC, FLC was high in the late-flowering accessions. Across accessions, FT was expressed only at low FLC levels and did not respond to CO in the late-flowering accessions. We proposed that FT may only be expressed below a threshold value of FLC and demonstrated that these three genes correlated to flowering times across genetically distinct accessions of Arabidopsis

An explanatory model of temperature influence on flowering through whole-plant accumulation of FLOWERING LOCUS T in Arabidopsis thaliana

We assessed mechanistic temperature influence on flowering by incorporating temperature-responsive flowering mechanisms across developmental age into an existing model. Temperature influences the leaf production rate as well as expression of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT), a photoperiodic flowering regulator that is expressed in leaves. The Arabidopsis Framework Model incorporated temperature influence on leaf growth but ignored the consequences of leaf growth on and direct temperature influence of FT expression. We measured FT production in differently aged leaves and modified the model, adding mechanistic temperature influence on FT transcription, and causing whole-plant FT to accumulate with leaf growth. Our simulations suggest that in long days, the developmental stage (leaf number) at which the reproductive transition occurs is influenced by day length and temperature through FT, while temperature influences the rate of leaf production and the time (in days) the transition occurs. Further, we demonstrate that FT is mainly produced in the first 10 leaves in the Columbia (Col-0) accession, and that FT accumulation alone cannot explain flowering in conditions in which flowering is delayed. Our simulations supported our hypotheses that: (i) temperature regulation of FT, accumulated with leaf growth, is a component of thermal time, and (ii) incorporating mechanistic temperature regulation of FT can improve model predictions when temperatures change over time

An explanatory model of temperature influence on flowering through whole-plant accumulation of FLOWERING LOCUS T in Arabidopsis thaliana

We assessed mechanistic temperature influence on flowering by incorporating temperature-responsive flowering mechanisms across developmental age into an existing model. Temperature influences the leaf production rate as well as expression of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT), a photoperiodic flowering regulator that is expressed in leaves. The Arabidopsis Framework Model incorporated temperature influence on leaf growth but ignored the consequences of leaf growth on and direct temperature influence of FT expression. We measured FT production in differently aged leaves and modified the model, adding mechanistic temperature influence on FT transcription, and causing whole-plant FT to accumulate with leaf growth. Our simulations suggest that in long days, the developmental stage (leaf number) at which the reproductive transition occurs is influenced by day length and temperature through FT, while temperature influences the rate of leaf production and the time (in days) the transition occurs. Further, we demonstrate that FT is mainly produced in the first 10 leaves in the Columbia (Col-0) accession, and that FT accumulation alone cannot explain flowering in conditions in which flowering is delayed. Our simulations supported our hypotheses that: (i) temperature regulation of FT, accumulated with leaf growth, is a component of thermal time, and (ii) incorporating mechanistic temperature regulation of FT can improve model predictions when temperatures change over time

CFAP300 mutation causing primary ciliary dyskinesia in Finland

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare genetic condition characterized by chronic respiratory tract infections and in some cases laterality defects and infertility. The symptoms of PCD are caused by malfunction of motile cilia, hair-like organelles protruding out of the cell that are responsible for removal of mucus from the airways and organizing internal organ positioning during embryonic development. PCD is caused by mutations in genes coding for structural or assembly proteins in motile cilia. Thus far mutations in over 50 genes have been identified and these variants explain around 70% of all known cases. Population specific genetics underlying PCD has been reported, thus highlighting the importance of characterizing gene variants in different populations for development of gene-based diagnostics. In this study, we identified a recurrent loss-of-function mutation c.198_200delinsCC in CFAP300 causing lack of the protein product. PCD patients homozygous for the identified CFAP300 mutation have immotile airway epithelial cilia associated with missing dynein arms in their ciliary axonemes. Furthermore, using super resolution microscopy we demonstrate that CFAP300 is transported along cilia in normal human airway epithelial cells suggesting a role for CFAP300 in dynein complex transport in addition to preassembly in the cytoplasm. Our results highlight the importance of CFAP300 in dynein arm assembly and improve diagnostics of PCD in Finland.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Combined exome and whole-genome sequencing identifies mutations in ARMC4 as a cause of primary ciliary dyskinesia with defects in the outer dynein arm

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare, genetically heterogeneous ciliopathy disorder affecting cilia and sperm motility. A range of ultrastructural defects of the axoneme underlie the disease, which is characterised by chronic respiratory symptoms and obstructive lung disease, infertility and body axis laterality defects. We applied a next-generation sequencing approach to identify the gene responsible for this phenotype in two consanguineous families

Pseudohyperphosphorylation of tau is sufficient to induce aberrant sprouting and activation of ERK1/2 in transgenic mice

Poster presentation: Hyperphosphorylation of tau is a characteristic of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our group has established a model for tau hyperphosphorylation by mutating 10 residues from Ser/Thr to Glu to simulate the negative charge of phosphorylated residues ("pseudohyperphosphorylated (PHP)-tau"). In order to analyze temporal and spatial effects of hyperphosphorylation of tau in a systemic context, we have established transgenic mouse lines that express human wild-type (wt)- or PHP-tau under the control of the CamKIIalpha-promoter that leads to a forebrain specific moderate expression in neurons, i.e. the region where also tau-pathology in AD is abundant. For the evaluation of tau-induced changes in the transgenic mice, we quantified spine densities in the neocortex and hippocampus of transgenic mice. The spine densitiy was significantly increased in PHP-tau compared to wt-tau expressing mice. It is known that AD is associated with aberrant pre- and postsynaptic sprouting. Axonal sprouting is also observed in transgenic mice expressing mutated amyloid precursor protein (APP), which suggests that Abeta plays a significant role in this process. We deduce from our results, that (pseudo)-hyperphosphorylation of tau is sufficient to induce aberrant sprouting in the absence of Abeta. Analyses whether this sprouting is induced by pre- or postsynaptic changes and if functionally active synapses are formed are in progress. It will be interesting to determine if stabilization of these newly formed synapses slows or – in contrary – accelerates the progression of the disease. Sprouting as observed in our PHP-tau expressing mice is part of neuronal differentiation. One family of enzymes that is involved in cell differentiation are mitogen-acitvated protein kinases (MAPK). Western blot analysis was performed with brain lysates from transgenic mice to check whether PHP-tau induced sprouting is associated with MAPK activation. In fact, we also observed an increased activation of the MAPK ERK1/2 evident by phosphorylation of the residues Thr202 and Tyr204. ERK1/2 is also known to phosphorylate tau at sites characteristic for AD. Our results suggest the presence of a vicious circle by which (pseudo)-hyperphosphorylated tau activates ERK1/2 which in turn phosphorylates tau

Mapping the ratio of agricultural inputs to yields reveals areas with potentially less sustainable farming

Fertilisers and pesticides are major sources of the environmental harm that results from farming, yet it remains difficult to target reductions in their impacts without compromising food production. We suggest that calculating the ratio of agrochemical inputs to yield can provide an indication of the potential sustainability of farmland, with those areas that have high input relative to yield being considered as less sustainable. Here we design an approach to characterise such Input to Yield Ratios (IYR) for four inputs that can be plausibly linked to environmental impacts: the cumulative risk resulting from pesticide exposure for honeybees and for earthworms, and the amount of nitrogen or phosphorus fertiliser applied per unit area. We capitalise on novel national-scale data to assess IYR for wheat farming across all of England. High-resolution spatial patterns of IYR differed among the four inputs, but hotspots, where all four IYRs were high, were in key agricultural regions not usually characterised as having low suitability for cropping. By scaling the magnitude of each input against crop yield, the IYR does not penalise areas of high yield with higher inputs (important for food production), or areas with low yields but which are achieved with low inputs (important as low impact areas). Instead, the IYR provides a globally applicable framework for evaluating the broad patterns of trade-offs between production and environmental risk, as an indicator of the potential for harm, over large scales. Its use can thus inform targeting to improve agricultural sustainability, or where one might switch to other land uses such as ecosystem restoration