Rhythm of Silence

This thesis focuses on a fictional depiction of life in the small town of Marion. Illinois in the 1930s and 40s. Each summer throughout my childhood, I spent several weeks visiting my Grandmother, Bertha Kelsey, and Aunt, Dorothy Odum, who live in Marion, Illinois. Spending the balance of the year living in the suburbs of St. Louis, I found Marion a very different world from the one I knew. This story, in large part, was inspired by my memories of Marion as well as the memories my mother, Rosemary Doerner, has shared with me about growing up in Marion. Any similarity between the characters and incidents in the story and actual people and events is strictly coincidental. The following is a general outline for the story: Setting: Marion, Illinois I 930s through mid 40s. Sense of Place: A small southern Illinois town. Grammaw Kelsey and Aunt Dot were both very involved in the Marion, Illinois community. Through them, I met many of the residents. Plot: I wanted to tell about real people, some tragic, some strong, all with a mix of personality traits, both good and bad (my humble way of trying to imitate Shakespeare). Main Characters: Anise and her mother represent the poverty stricken people my grandmother and mother encountered as they worked for President Franklin Roosevelt\u27s Social Reform Program during the Great Depression. I wanted someone to rise above the sadness and neglect, thus came the main character, Robert Forester. Grammaw Netty is my Grammaw Kelsey and Aunt Dot combined. Doctor Forester, Robert\u27s father, is a complex man who remains somewhat of a mystery throughout the story. Point of View: Third person. Voice: Mine, trying to depict the richness of life, the humor, the sadness and the strength and determination of these fictional people of Marion. Writing mainstream literature, or stories about everyday people and everyday events, has always been a challenge for me. The genres: mystery, romance, science fiction and horror seemed to be more assured of holding the readers\u27 interest. But for this culminating project l decided to put away the crutches of genre and rely solely on the diversity in human nature to carry the story. I\u27ve enjoyed the challenge and am surprised by the wide range of topics everyday life presents

HD 219134 Revisited: Planet d Transit Upper Limit and Planet f Transit Nondetection with ASTERIA and TESS

HD 219134 is a K3V dwarf star with six reported radial-velocity discovered planets. The two innermost planets b and c show transits, raising the possibility of this system to be the nearest (6.53 pc), brightest (V = 5.57) example of a star with a compact multiple transiting planet system. Ground-based searches for transits of planets beyond b and c are not feasible because of the infrequent transits, long transit duration (~5 hr), shallow transit depths (<1%), and large transit time uncertainty (~half a day). We use the space-based telescopes the Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics (ASTERIA) and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to search for transits of planets f (P = 22.717 days and M sin i = 7.3 ± 0.04M_⊕) and d (P = 46.859 days and M sin i = 16.7 ± 0.64M_⊕). ASTERIA was a technology demonstration CubeSat with an opportunity for science in an extended program. ASTERIA observations of HD 219134 were designed to cover the 3σ transit windows for planets f and d via repeated visits over many months. While TESS has much higher sensitivity and more continuous time coverage than ASTERIA, only the HD 219134 f transit window fell within the TESS survey's observations. Our TESS photometric results definitively rule out planetary transits for HD 219134 f. We do not detect the Neptune-mass HD 219134 d transits and our ASTERIA data are sensitive to planets as small as 3.6 R_⊕. We provide TESS updated transit times and periods for HD 219134 b and c, which are designated TOI 1469.01 and 1469.02 respectively

Mitochondrial Reactive Oxygen Species Mediate GPCR–induced TACE/ADAM17-dependent Transforming Growth Factor-α Shedding

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activation by GPCRs regulates many important biological processes. ADAM metalloprotease activity has been implicated as a key step in transactivation, yet the regulatory mechanisms are not fully understood. Here, we investigate the regulation of transforming growth factor-α (TGF-α) shedding by reactive oxygen species (ROS) through the ATP-dependent activation of the P2Y family of GPCRs. We report that ATP stimulates TGF-α proteolysis with concomitant EGFR activation and that this process requires TACE/ADAM17 activity in both murine fibroblasts and CHO cells. ATP-induced TGF-α shedding required calcium and was independent of Src family kinases and PKC and MAPK signaling. Moreover, ATP-induced TGF-α shedding was completely inhibited by scavengers of ROS, whereas calcium-stimulated shedding was partially inhibited by ROS scavenging. Hydrogen peroxide restored TGF-α shedding after calcium chelation. Importantly, we also found that ATP-induced shedding was independent of the cytoplasmic NADPH oxidase complex. Instead, mitochondrial ROS production increased in response to ATP and mitochondrial oxidative complex activity was required to activate TACE-dependent shedding. These results reveal an essential role for mitochondrial ROS in regulating GPCR-induced growth factor shedding

Worldwide trends in population-based survival for children, adolescents, and young adults diagnosed with leukaemia, by subtype, during 2000–14 (CONCORD-3): analysis of individual data from 258 cancer registries in 61 countries

Background: Leukaemias comprise a heterogenous group of haematological malignancies. In CONCORD-3, we analysed data for children (aged 0–14 years) and adults (aged 15–99 years) diagnosed with a haematological malignancy during 2000–14 in 61 countries. Here, we aimed to examine worldwide trends in survival from leukaemia, by age and morphology, in young patients (aged 0–24 years). Methods: We analysed data from 258 population-based cancer registries in 61 countries participating in CONCORD-3 that submitted data on patients diagnosed with leukaemia. We grouped patients by age as children (0–14 years), adolescents (15–19 years), and young adults (20–24 years). We categorised leukaemia subtypes according to the International Classification of Childhood Cancer (ICCC-3), updated with International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, third edition (ICD-O-3) codes. We estimated 5-year net survival by age and morphology, with 95% CIs, using the non-parametric Pohar-Perme estimator. To control for background mortality, we used life tables by country or region, single year of age, single calendar year and sex, and, where possible, by race or ethnicity. All-age survival estimates were standardised to the marginal distribution of young people with leukaemia included in the analysis. Findings: 164 563 young people were included in this analysis: 121 328 (73·7%) children, 22 963 (14·0%) adolescents, and 20 272 (12·3%) young adults. In 2010–14, the most common subtypes were lymphoid leukaemia (28 205 [68·2%] patients) and acute myeloid leukaemia (7863 [19·0%] patients). Age-standardised 5-year net survival in children, adolescents, and young adults for all leukaemias combined during 2010–14 varied widely, ranging from 46% in Mexico to more than 85% in Canada, Cyprus, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, and Australia. Individuals with lymphoid leukaemia had better age-standardised survival (from 43% in Ecuador to ≥80% in parts of Europe, North America, Oceania, and Asia) than those with acute myeloid leukaemia (from 32% in Peru to ≥70% in most high-income countries in Europe, North America, and Oceania). Throughout 2000–14, survival from all leukaemias combined remained consistently higher for children than adolescents and young adults, and minimal improvement was seen for adolescents and young adults in most countries. Interpretation: This study offers the first worldwide picture of population-based survival from leukaemia in children, adolescents, and young adults. Adolescents and young adults diagnosed with leukaemia continue to have lower survival than children. Trends in survival from leukaemia for adolescents and young adults are important indicators of the quality of cancer management in this age group