Effects of Urbanization on Environmental Parameters in Aquatic Systems along an Urban-rural Gradient in Northeastern Illinois

The transformation of landscapes from rural to urban land use impacts affected ecosystems. Replacing natural vegetation with impervious surfaces and introducing environmental stressors through increased human activity can significantly alter aquatic ecosystems. This study examined the effects that urbanization had on salinity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, conductivity, and pH of aquatic systems along an urban-rural gradient in Illinois, Chicago land area- Little Calumet River, Thorn Creek, and Kankakee River. The first objective of this project was to examine whether there were changes or fluctuations among various environmental parameters that may be due to heavily populated residential areas when compared to a preserve. The second objective compared the responses of the environmental parameters against the urban- rural gradient. The study was conducted from February to August 2010. Data collection was from March to May 2010. There was a significant difference in all variables along the urban-rural gradient based on location (

Project Management Level Up: How the Right Tools and Training Can Improve Collaboration in Your Library

At a growing health sciences institution with an emerging College of Medicine, library staff needed a way to build capacity towards the additional students and programs expected in the future. This presentation will share their project management methodology, developed over three years, that utilizes project management principles and emerging tools such as MS Teams and Planner. It has allowed the library to make significant changes without overloading staff or compromising transparent communication. View a recording of this presentation on YouTube

Domestic Violence and Abuse in the Healthcare Setting

Introduction and Background: Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is a growing global concern that affects patients encountered by nurses. DVA is defined as anything that is used to establish and maintain control over another person. The occurrence of DVA has ongoing negative consequences for patients related to their safety, especially if nurses are not properly trained to detect and control the situation. Purpose Statement: For all registered nurses, does ongoing training opportunities and implemented universal screening processes on DVA, as compared to inadequate training and generalized screening processes, lead to effectively detecting DVA and providing better emotional, physical, and safety interventions for patients? Literature Review: The process of our literature review included the use of searching the ETSU library scholarly database and comparing our findings from twenty different peer-reviewed research articles. In the search methods used, we chose to look at multiple studies that researched DVA globally. Findings: The major findings of our research as a team included: communication barriers that exist for patients who are victims of DVA, establishing rapport to build better trust with patients, the necessity of standardized screening tools to assess for DVA, the incorporation of the entire healthcare team to create a more supportive network that includes on-call domestic violence advisors, and continuing education for nurses. Conclusions: Key takeaways that were found in our research included eliminating communication barriers with patients, using developed tools to strategically screen for domestic violence and abuse, and the importance of ongoing DVA training for nurses

‘Swallow your pride and fear’: the educational strategies of high-achieving non-traditional university students

With more graduates, degree outcomes have a renewed significance for high-achieving students to stand out in a graduate crowd. In the UK, over a quarter of undergraduates now leave university with the highest grade – a ‘first-class’ degree – although students from non-traditional and underprivileged backgrounds are the least likely. This paper explores the experiences of high-achieving non-traditional (HANT) university students. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 30 final-year students who are on course to achieve a first-class degree from working-class, minority ethnic and/or mature backgrounds, we examine their pathways to academic success through identity works and negotiations. We argue that early successes are crucial for students to re-evaluate their self-expectations as students who can achieve in higher education, while self-esteem, pride or fear can prevent students from maximising their available resources and opportunities. Implications for practice and policy are discussed, including the reflective advice from HANT students toward academic success

Comparative genomics and genome biology of Campylobacter showae

We thank the Garrett and Huttenhower laboratories for useful discussions. This work was supported by a Fulbright Scholarship to GH, an NHS Grampian Endowment grant fund to I.M. and G.H., a CSO clinical academic fellowship to R.H. (CAF/08/01). RH is supported by an NHS Research Scotland Career Researcher Fellowship. NIH NIDDK grant R24DK110499 to CH, and NSF grant DBI-1053486 to CH.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Fluoride Depletes Acidogenic Taxa in Oral but Not Gut Microbial Communities in Mice

ABSTRACT Fluoridation of drinking water and dental products prevents dental caries primarily by inhibiting energy harvest in oral cariogenic bacteria (such as Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sanguinis), thus leading to their depletion. However, the extent to which oral and gut microbial communities are affected by host fluoride exposure has been underexplored. In this study, we modeled human fluoride exposures to municipal water and dental products by treating mice with low or high levels of fluoride over a 12-week period. We then used 16S rRNA gene amplicon and shotgun metagenomic sequencing to assess fluoride’s effects on oral and gut microbiome composition and function. In both the low- and high-fluoride groups, several operational taxonomic units (OTUs) belonging to acidogenic bacterial genera (such as Parabacteroides, Bacteroides, and Bilophila) were depleted in the oral community. In addition, fluoride-associated changes in oral community composition resulted in depletion of gene families involved in central carbon metabolism and energy harvest (2-oxoglutarate ferredoxin oxidoreductase, succinate dehydrogenase, and the glyoxylate cycle). In contrast, fluoride treatment did not induce a significant shift in gut microbial community composition or function in our mouse model, possibly due to absorption in the upper gastrointestinal tract. Fluoride-associated perturbations thus appeared to have a selective effect on the composition of the oral but not gut microbial community in mice. Future studies will be necessary to understand possible implications of fluoride exposure for the human microbiome. IMPORTANCE: Fluoride has been added to drinking water and dental products since the 1950s. The beneficial effects of fluoride on oral health are due to its ability to inhibit the growth of bacteria that cause dental caries. Despite widespread human consumption of fluoride, there have been only two studies of humans that considered the effect of fluoride on human-associated microbial communities, which are increasingly understood to play important roles in health and disease. Notably, neither of these studies included a true cross-sectional control lacking fluoride exposure, as study subjects continued baseline fluoride treatment in their daily dental hygiene routines. To our knowledge, this work (in mice) is the first controlled study to assess the independent effects of fluoride exposure on the oral and gut microbial communities. Investigating how fluoride interacts with host-associated microbial communities in this controlled setting represents an effort toward understanding how common environmental exposures may potentially influence health

Evaluating the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in adults with sickle cell disease during the Omicron period of COVID-19 pandemic

Background and aimsThe Omicron variant, one of the variants causing the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19), was first identified in November 2021 and became the predominant variant in 2022. Although causing less severe disease, this variant and its subvariants have been associated with increased transmissibility and limited protection despite vaccination and prior infection. Individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD) are particularly at greater risk of severe illness and death, and studies regarding the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination have been limited in this population. The study aims to determine the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination during this period among individuals with SCD and to examine various factors that can influence the likelihood of COVID-19 infection and severity among SCD individuals.MethodsThis is a retrospective analysis of adult patients (≥18 years) with SCD who had emergency and inpatient encounters between January 1 and December 31, 2022. Multivariable regression analysis was performed to determine the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine among this population.ResultsThe study found that COVID-19 vaccination lowered the infection risk among SCD individuals by over 70% if they have received at least one dose of the vaccine. The study also found that individuals with SCD and a history of acute chest syndrome were over 3 times more likely to have a COVID-19 infection diagnosis than those without a history of acute chest syndrome.ConclusionThe study confirms the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine among individuals with SCD during the Omicron period of the COVID-19 pandemic

Methamphetamine Causes Differential Alterations in Gene Expression and Patterns of Histone Acetylation/Hypoacetylation in the Rat Nucleus Accumbens

Methamphetamine (METH) addiction is associated with several neuropsychiatric symptoms. Little is known about the effects of METH on gene expression and epigenetic modifications in the rat nucleus accumbens (NAC). Our study investigated the effects of a non-toxic METH injection (20 mg/kg) on gene expression, histone acetylation, and the expression of the histone acetyltransferase (HAT), ATF2, and of the histone deacetylases (HDACs), HDAC1 and HDAC2, in that structure. Microarray analyses done at 1, 8, 16 and 24 hrs after the METH injection identified METH-induced changes in the expression of genes previously implicated in the acute and longterm effects of psychostimulants, including immediate early genes and corticotropin-releasing factor (Crf). In contrast, the METH injection caused time-dependent decreases in the expression of other genes including Npas4 and cholecystokinin (Cck). Pathway analyses showed that genes with altered expression participated in behavioral performance, cell-to-cell signaling, and regulation of gene expression. PCR analyses confirmed the changes in the expression of c-fos, fosB, Crf, Cck, and Npas4 transcripts. To determine if the METH injection caused post-translational changes in histone markers, we used western blot analyses and identified METH-mediated decreases in histone H3 acetylated at lysine 9 (H3K9ac) and lysine 18 (H3K18ac) in nuclear sub-fractions. In contrast, the METH injection caused time-dependent increases in acetylated H4K5 and H4K8. The changes in histone acetylation were accompanied by decreased expression of HDAC1 but increased expression of HDAC2 protein levels. The histone acetyltransferase, ATF2, showed significant METH-induced increased in protein expression. These results suggest that METH-induced alterations in global gene expression seen in rat NAC might be related, in part, to METH-induced changes in histone acetylation secondary to changes in HAT and HDAC expression. The causal role that HATs and HDACs might play in METH-induced gene expression needs to be investigated further

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission: Optical Telescope Element Design, Development, and Performance

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared space telescope that has recently started its science program which will enable breakthroughs in astrophysics and planetary science. Notably, JWST will provide the very first observations of the earliest luminous objects in the Universe and start a new era of exoplanet atmospheric characterization. This transformative science is enabled by a 6.6 m telescope that is passively cooled with a 5-layer sunshield. The primary mirror is comprised of 18 controllable, low areal density hexagonal segments, that were aligned and phased relative to each other in orbit using innovative image-based wavefront sensing and control algorithms. This revolutionary telescope took more than two decades to develop with a widely distributed team across engineering disciplines. We present an overview of the telescope requirements, architecture, development, superb on-orbit performance, and lessons learned. JWST successfully demonstrates a segmented aperture space telescope and establishes a path to building even larger space telescopes.Comment: accepted by PASP for JWST Overview Special Issue; 34 pages, 25 figure

Federated learning enables big data for rare cancer boundary detection.

Although machine learning (ML) has shown promise across disciplines, out-of-sample generalizability is concerning. This is currently addressed by sharing multi-site data, but such centralization is challenging/infeasible to scale due to various limitations. Federated ML (FL) provides an alternative paradigm for accurate and generalizable ML, by only sharing numerical model updates. Here we present the largest FL study to-date, involving data from 71 sites across 6 continents, to generate an automatic tumor boundary detector for the rare disease of glioblastoma, reporting the largest such dataset in the literature (n = 6, 314). We demonstrate a 33% delineation improvement for the surgically targetable tumor, and 23% for the complete tumor extent, over a publicly trained model. We anticipate our study to: 1) enable more healthcare studies informed by large diverse data, ensuring meaningful results for rare diseases and underrepresented populations, 2) facilitate further analyses for glioblastoma by releasing our consensus model, and 3) demonstrate the FL effectiveness at such scale and task-complexity as a paradigm shift for multi-site collaborations, alleviating the need for data-sharing