The Grizzly, September 28, 2017

Constitution Day Sparks Student Discussions of Free Speech • Chin Brings Sexy Bad Girl Haikus, Asian American Blues Poems and Elegies to Ursinus Reading • Next Year\u27s Study Abroad Application Opens on October 3rd • Armstrong Lecture Brings Columbia University Historian Dr. Joshua Batts to Berman Museum • Home is Where the Bear is • New Species Comes to Ursinus • Opinions: Consciousness Raising Can Combat Rape Culture on Campus; Is This Sufjan Stevens Song Gay or Just About God? • Student Workers of the SMC • Pair of Wins Put Bears in Good Positionhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1626/thumbnail.jp

Patch richness affecting patch selection of Pityophantes

General EcologyWe observed spiders of the family Linyphiidae and genus Pityohyphantes in two different microhabitats at the University of Michigan Biological Station near Pellston, Michigan. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of prey distribution on spider foraging behavior in the two microhabitats. The microhabitats were composed of a temperate forest woodland understory and a shoreline habitat along Douglas Lake. Microhabitat richness was measured by observing potential prey abundance, number of prey captured on sheet webs, and biomass of captured prey in both microhabitats. The shoreline microhabitat was found to have a higher abundance of potential prey of the two areas under study. However, the woodland understory was observed to have a higher average prey capture count and biomass per web. Unfortunately, our results conflicted depending on what criteria was used. Though we could not definitively say which was the richer patch, we did find variability in patch richness. Despite the variability in patch richness, an equal distribution of sheet webs was found between the two microhabitats. These results suggest that factors other than prey distribution affect patch selection. Although outside the scope of our study, tradeoffs such as competition or predation likely result in Pityohyphantes spiders preferring a microhabitat with less potential prey.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57466/1/Enoch_Zorger_Metwally_Kleaveland_2007.pd

The Grizzly, September 7, 2017

Exciting Changes Coming to the Institute for Inclusion and Equity • New Real Estate Opens up at the Berman Museum • Ursinus Receives Grant for New Christian Studies Program on Campus • Writing for the Invisible: Dr. Keita Awarded a Pew Fellowship • First-year Advising is on Beat: Dr. Holly Hubbs Receives Award for Excellence • Opinions: Removing Confederate Statues Condemns White Supremacy; Fall Orientation Starts the Semester with Efficiency • Women\u27s Soccer Gets New Leader in Ascolese • Bears Top Pick for Centennial Conferencehttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1623/thumbnail.jp

BLOC-2 targets recycling endosomal tubules to melanosomes for cargo delivery.

Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (HPS) is a group of disorders characterized by the malformation of lysosome-related organelles, such as pigment cell melanosomes. Three of nine characterized HPS subtypes result from mutations in subunits of BLOC-2, a protein complex with no known molecular function. In this paper, we exploit melanocytes from mouse HPS models to place BLOC-2 within a cargo transport pathway from recycling endosomal domains to maturing melanosomes. In BLOC-2-deficient melanocytes, the melanosomal protein TYRP1 was largely depleted from pigment granules and underwent accelerated recycling from endosomes to the plasma membrane and to the Golgi. By live-cell imaging, recycling endosomal tubules of wild-type melanocytes made frequent and prolonged contacts with maturing melanosomes; in contrast, tubules from BLOC-2-deficient cells were shorter in length and made fewer, more transient contacts with melanosomes. These results support a model in which BLOC-2 functions to direct recycling endosomal tubular transport intermediates to maturing melanosomes and thereby promote cargo delivery and optimal pigmentation

Diagnosis of sarcopenia on thoracic computed tomography and its association with postoperative survival after anatomic lung cancer resection

Computer tomography-derived skeletal muscle index normalized for height in conjunction with muscle density enables single modality-based sarcopenia assessment that accounts for all diagnostic criteria and cutoff recommendations as per the widely accepted European consensus. Yet, the standard approach to quantify skeletal musculature at the third lumbar vertebra is limited for certain patient groups, such as lung cancer patients who receive chest CT for tumor staging that does not encompass this lumbar level. As an alternative, this retrospective study assessed sarcopenia in lung cancer patients treated with curative intent at the tenth thoracic vertebral level using appropriate cutoffs. We showed that skeletal muscle index and radiation attenuation at level T10 correlate well with those at level L3 (Pearson’s R = 0.82 and 0.66, p < 0.001). During a median follow-up period of 55.7 months, sarcopenia was independently associated with worse overall (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.11, 95%-confidence interval (95%-CI) = 1.38–3.23, p < 0.001) and cancer-specific survival (HR = 2.00, 95%-CI = 1.19–3.36, p = 0.009) of lung cancer patients following anatomic resection. This study highlights feasibility to diagnose sarcopenia solely by thoracic CT in accordance with the European consensus recommendations. The straightforward methodology offers easy translation into routine clinical care and potential to improve preoperative risk stratification of lung cancer patients scheduled for surgery

Canine Retina Has a Primate Fovea-Like Bouquet of Cone Photoreceptors Which Is Affected by Inherited Macular Degenerations

Retinal areas of specialization confer vertebrates with the ability to scrutinize corresponding regions of their visual field with greater resolution. A highly specialized area found in haplorhine primates (including humans) is the fovea centralis which is defined by a high density of cone photoreceptors connected individually to interneurons, and retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) that are offset to form a pit lacking retinal capillaries and inner retinal neurons at its center. In dogs, a local increase in RGC density is found in a topographically comparable retinal area defined as the area centralis. While the canine retina is devoid of a foveal pit, no detailed examination of the photoreceptors within the area centralis has been reported. Using both in vivo and ex vivo imaging, we identified a retinal region with a primate fovea-like cone photoreceptor density but without the excavation of the inner retina. Similar anatomical structure observed in rare human subjects has been named fovea-plana. In addition, dogs with mutations in two different genes, that cause macular degeneration in humans, developed earliest disease at the newly-identified canine fovea-like area. Our results challenge the dogma that within the phylogenetic tree of mammals, haplorhine primates with a fovea are the sole lineage in which the retina has a central bouquet of cones. Furthermore, a predilection for naturally-occurring retinal degenerations to alter this cone-enriched area fills the void for a clinically-relevant animal model of human macular degenerations

Health Care Workers’ Sick Leave due to COVID-19 Vaccination in Context With SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Quarantine—A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Survey

Background Reactogenicity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines can result in inability to work. The object of this study was to evaluate health care workers’ sick leave after COVID-19 vaccination and to compare it with sick leave due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and quarantine leave. Methods A multicenter cross-sectional survey was conducted at Regensburg University Medical Center and 10 teaching hospitals in South-East Germany from July 28 to October 15, 2021. Results Of 2662 participants, 2309 (91.8%) were fully vaccinated without a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Sick leave after first/second vaccination occurred in 239 (10.4%) and 539 (23.3%) participants. In multivariable logistic regression, the adjusted odds ratio for sick leave after first/second vaccination compared with BNT162b2 was 2.26/3.72 for mRNA-1237 (95% CI, 1.28–4.01/1.99–6.96) and 27.82/0.48 for ChAdOx1-S (95% CI, 19.12–40.48/0.24–0.96). The actual median sick leave (interquartile range [IQR]) was 1 (0–2) day after any vaccination. Two hundred fifty-one participants (9.4%) reported a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection (median sick leave [IQR] 14 [10–21] days), 353 (13.3%) were quarantined at least once (median quarantine leave [IQR], 14 [10–14] days). Sick leave due to SARS-CoV-2 infection (4642 days) and quarantine leave (4710 days) accounted for 7.7 times more loss of workforce than actual sick leave after first and second vaccination (1216 days) in all fully vaccinated participants. Conclusions Sick leave after COVID-19 vaccination is frequent and is associated with the vaccine applied. COVID-19 vaccination should reduce the much higher proportion of loss of workforce due to SARS-CoV-2 infection and quarantine

What About Moral Motherhood? An Exploration Into the Maternal Body as an Object and Subject

The relationship between selfhood and motherhood has long been debated. Is the mother a subject when she is pregnant and raising a child? I claim this is a double-bind. The mother can either be a transcendent subject, as Simone de Beauvoir coins in her book The Second Sex, or she can be a selfless mother. This dichotomy is explored in her works and within the psychoanalytic tradition. I will look at both Beauvoir and Donald W. Winnicott as I outline a language to conceptualize this double-bind. Using his categories of the good enough mother and the too good mother, I will lay out the issue of morality and motherhood to demonstrate how the subject must interact with her obligations of motherhood in order to be a good mother. I will engage with both of these thinkers to give language to the issue of maternal selfhood, arguing that within these two fields, there may be room for a subject who is also a mother