Amelioration of the neuroinhibitory local environment after ischemic injury through in situ astrocyte-to-neuron conversion

Ischemic injury in central nervous system (CNS) often causes severe neuronal loss and activates glial cells. We showed earlier that NeuroD1-mediated astrocyte-to-neuron (AtN) conversion can regenerate a substantial proportion of neurons (~40% of the total) and reconstruct the ischemic injured neural circuits. In this study, we focus on glial changes and blood vessel recovery following AtN conversion. Specifically, we found that ectopic expression of NeuroD1 in the reactive astrocytes after ischemic injury significantly reduced glial reactivity, as shown by less hypertrophic morphology, along with reduced secretion of neuroinhibitory factors such as CSPG and LCN2. As for microglia, we found less amoeboid shape of reactive microglia with reduced inflammatory factors such as IL-1β, TNFα. Moreover, blood vessels in the injured areas were repaired after AtN conversion and the blood-brain-barrier structure was restored. Whole tissue transcriptome sequencing identified significantly reduced reactive astrocyte genes and proinflammatory genes, as well as an upregulation of neurogenesis pathway and angiogenesis genes. Together, we demonstrate that NeuroD1-mediated astrocyte-to-neuron (AtN) conversion can alleviate glial scarring and inflammation to create a more neuropermissive micro-environment for functional recovery

Decision-Making: What Does It Have to Do with My Teaching? Research Brief

Engineering education can be thought of as a complex design activity where educators create a range of teaching artifacts including course curricula, classroom policies, lecture notes, exams, and timelines for student group projects. In order to design such artifacts, engineering faculty must make a series of teaching decisions, each of which can impact their students\u27 learning and engagement with course activities. Given the importance of decision-making in engineering education, the authors hope that by beginning to characterize engineering educator decisions, educators will gain a greater awareness of their decision-making by recognizing, characterizing, and anticipating decision points. Thus, the initial research questions driving this study were: (1) What aspects of engineering educators\u27 decision-making processes are prominent during their participation in the instructional development process?; and (2) How can engineering educators make more effective decisions? This exploratory study looks at engineering faculty decisions as expressed during the instructional development process

Precise measurement of the left-right cross-section asymmetry in Z boson production by e+ e- collisions

We present a precise measurement of the left-right cross section asymmetry ($A_{LR}$) for $Z$ boson production by \ee collisions. The measurement was performed at a center-of-mass energy of 91.26 GeV with the SLD detector at the SLAC Linear Collider (SLC). The luminosity-weighted average polarization of the SLC electron beam was (63.0$\pm$1.1)%. Using a sample of 49,392 \z0 decays, we measure $A_{LR}$ to be 0.1628$\pm$0.0071(stat.)$\pm$0.0028(syst.) which determines the effective weak mixing angle to be \swein=0.2292\pm0.0009({\rm stat.})\pm0.0004({\rm syst.}).}Comment: 15 pages, no figure

First measurement of the left-right asymmetry in Z boson production

We present the first measurement of the left-right cross-section asymmetry (A(LR)) in Z-boson production observed at the SLAC Linear Collider. In 1992 the SLD detector recorded 10 224 Z events produced by the collision of longitudinally polarized electrons with an unpolarized positron beam at a center-of-mass energy of 91.55 GeV. The average electron beam polarization during the run was (22.4 +/- 0.6)%. We measure A(LR) to be 0.100 +/- 0.044 (stat.) +/- 0.004 (syst.), which determines the effective weak mixing angle to be sin2 theta(W)eff = 0.2378 +/- 0.0056 (stat.) +/- 0.0005 (syst.)

First measurement of the left-right cross-section asymmetry in Z boson production by e+ e- collisions

We present the first measurement of the left-right cross section asymmetry (A(LR)) for Z boson production by e+e- collisions. The measurement was performed at a center-of-mass energy of 91.55 GeV with the SLD detector at the SLAC Linear Collider which utilized a longitudinally polarized electron beam. The average beam polarization was (22.4 +/- 0.6)%. Using a sample of 10224 Z decays, we measure A(LR) to be 0.100 +/- 0.044(stat) +/- 0.004(syst), which determines the effective weak mixing angle to be sin2theta(W)eff=0.2378 +/- 0.0056(stat) +/- 0.0005(syst)