Mathematics: A good predictor for success in a health science degree

Research-based literature indicates that secondary school mathematics performance is highly predictive of university performance Moreover, scholars suggest that success in secondary mathematics courses translates into success in tertiary degrees where mathematics is required. This paper examines the extent to which the completion of secondary school mathematics courses is predictive of academic success for 57 first-year students enrolled in a Health Science degree at The University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA) (Fremantle Campus). Using the University’s databases, the level of mathematics completed at secondary school was examined against gender, Tertiary Entrance Ranking (TER) and Grade Point Average (GPA). A statistical analysis of collected data revealed that irrespective of gender, students who completed 3C3D mathematics at secondary school had a significantly (p = .00) higher GPA, than those students who had studied level 2C2D mathematics. These findings are discussed briefly in light of the current literature presented

Understanding the performance of water supply systems during mild to extreme droughts

This project assessed the performance of different types of public water supply systems in England and Wales in a range of droughts, including those that are more severe than the worst droughts in the historical record

The association between secondary mathematics and first year university performance in health sciences

In recent years, there has been a significant decline in the rate of participation in secondary school mathematics courses within Australia, particularly in advanced or higher level mathematics. The aim of this study was to investigate how grade point average (GPA) differed between five health science degrees at an Australian university. The association between Australian Tertiary Admission Ranking (ATAR), the level of mathematics completed at secondary school and GPA was also investigated. Results showed that students studying Biomedical Sciences and Physiotherapy had significantly higher GPA and ATAR than students studying Exercise and Sports Science, Physical Education, and Nursing. A higher percentage of Biomedical Science, and Physiotherapy students undertook advanced mathematics (3C3D MAT) at secondary school than students in the other three degrees, who recorded lower secondary school mathematics result scores from an intermediate or elementary mathematics course studied (3A3B and 2C2D MAT, respectively). The results of this study accord with published literature from other university courses that the decline in numbers of students opting to undertake a higher level of mathematics at secondary school will impact negatively upon their first year university performance

Prediagnostic breast milk DNA methylation alterations in women who develop breast cancer

Prior candidate gene studies have shown tumor suppressor DNA methylation in breast milk related with history of breast biopsy, an established risk factor for breast cancer. To further establish the utility of breast milk as a tissue-specific biospecimen for investigations of breast carcinogenesis, we measured genome-wide DNA methylation in breast milk from women with and without a diagnosis of breast cancer in two independent cohorts. DNA methylation was assessed using Illumina HumanMethylation450k in 87 breast milk samples. Through an epigenome-wide association study we explored CpG sites associated with a breast cancer diagnosis in the prospectively collected milk samples from the breast that would develop cancer compared with women without a diagnosis of breast cancer using linear mixed effects models adjusted for history of breast biopsy, age, RefFreeCellMix cell estimates, time of delivery, array chip and subject as random effect. We identified 58 differentially methylated CpG sites associated with a subsequent breast cancer diagnosis (q-value \u3c0.05). Nearly all CpG sites associated with a breast cancer diagnosis were hypomethylated in cases compared with controls and were enriched for CpG islands. In addition, inferred repeat element methylation was lower in breast milk DNA from cases compared to controls, and cases exhibited increased estimated epigenetic mitotic tick rate as well as DNA methylation age compared with controls. Breast milk has utility as a biospecimen for prospective assessment of disease risk, for understanding the underlying molecular basis of breast cancer risk factors and improving primary and secondary prevention of breast cancer

Rapid tyrosine phosphorylation of neuronal proteins including tau and focal adhesion kinase in response to amyloid-beta peptide exposure: Involvement of src family protein kinases

The increased production of amyloid beta -peptide (A beta) in Alzheimer's disease is acknowledged to be a key pathogenic event. In this study, we examined the response of primary human and rat brain cortical cultures to A beta administration and found a marked increase in the tyrosine phosphorylation content of numerous neuronal proteins, including tau and putative microtubule-associated protein 2c (MAP2c). We also found that paired helical filaments of aggregated and hyperphosphorylated tau are tyrosine phosphorylated, indicating that changes in the phosphotyrosine content of cytoplasmic proteins in response to A beta are potentially an important process. Increased tyrosine phosphorylation of cytoskeletal and other neuronal proteins was specific to fibrillar A beta (25-35) and A beta (1-42). The tyrosine phosphorylation was blocked by addition of the Src family tyrosine kinase inhibitor 4-amino-5-( 4-chlorophenyl)- 7(t-butyl) pyrazol(3,4-D) pyramide (PP2) and the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor LY 294002. Tyrosine phosphorylation of tau and MAP2c was concomitant with an increase in the tyrosine phosphorylation and subsequent putative activation of the non-receptor kinase, focal adhesion kinase (FAK). Immunoprecipitation of Fyn, a member of the Src family, from A beta (25-35)-treated neurons showed an increased association of Fyn with FAK. A beta treatment of cells also stimulated the sustained activation of extracellular regulated kinase-2, which was blocked by addition of PP2 and LY 294002, suggesting that FAK/Fyn/PI3-kinase association is upstream of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase signaling in A beta -treated neurons. This cascade of signaling events contains the earliest biochemical changes in neurons to be described in response to A beta exposure and may be critical for subsequent neurodegenerative changes

The helminth parasite heligmosomoides polygyrus attenuates EAE in an IL-4Rα-dependent manner

Helminth parasites are effective in biasing Th2 immunity and inducing regulatory pathways that minimize excessive inflammation within their hosts, thus allowing chronic infection to occur whilst also suppressing bystander atopic or autoimmune diseases. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a severe autoimmune disease characterized by inflammatory lesions within the central nervous system; there are very limited therapeutic options for the progressive forms of the disease and none are curative. Here, we used the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model to examine if the intestinal helminth Heligmosomoides polygyrus and its excretory/secretory products (HES) are able to suppress inflammatory disease. Mice infected with H. polygyrus at the time of immunization with the peptide used to induce EAE (myelin-oligodendrocyte glycoprotein, pMOG), showed a delay in the onset and peak severity of EAE disease, however, treatment with HES only showed a marginal delay in disease onset. Mice that received H. polygyrus 4 weeks prior to EAE induction were also not significantly protected. H. polygyrus secretes a known TGF-β mimic (Hp-TGM) and simultaneous H. polygyrus infection with pMOG immunization led to a significant expansion of Tregs; however, administering the recombinant Hp-TGM to EAE mice failed to replicate the EAE protection seen during infection, indicating that this may not be central to the disease protecting mechanism. Mice infected with H. polygyrus also showed a systemic Th2 biasing, and restimulating splenocytes with pMOG showed release of pMOG-specific IL-4 as well as suppression of inflammatory IL-17A. Notably, a Th2-skewed response was found only in mice infected with H. polygyrus at the time of EAE induction and not those with a chronic infection. Furthermore, H. polygyrus failed to protect against disease in IL-4Rα−/− mice. Together these results indicate that the EAE disease protective mechanism of H. polygyrus is likely to be predominantly Th2 deviation, and further highlights Th2-biasing as a future therapeutic strategy for MS

‘We achieve the impossible’: discourses of freedom and escape at music festivals and free parties

In this article, we explore the notion of freedom as a form of governance within contemporary consumer culture in a sphere where ‘freedom’ appears as a key component: outdoor music-based leisure events, notably music festivals and free parties. ‘Freedom’ is commodified as central to the marketing of many music festivals, which now form a highly commercialised sector of the UK leisure industry, subject to various regulatory restrictions. Free parties, in contrast, are unlicensed, mostly illegal and far less commercialised leisure spaces. We present data from two related studies to investigate how participants at three major British outdoor music festivals and a small rural free party scene draw on discourses of freedom, escape and regulation. We argue that major music festivals operate as temporary bounded spheres of ‘licensed transgression’, in which an apparent lack of regulation operates as a form of governance. In contrast, free parties appear to ‘achieve the impossible’ by creating alternative (and illegal) spaces in which both freedom and regulation are constituted in different ways compared to music festival settings

Elevated serum ceruloplasmin levels are associated with higher impulsivity in people with Parkinson’s Disease

Background. Heightened impulsivity has been reported in a subset of people with Parkinson’s disease (PwP) and is considered a risk factor for the development of impulse control disorders (ICDs). However, at present, there are no recognised biochemical markers of heightened impulsivity. Objectives. To determine if ceruloplasmin, a serum marker involved in the regulation of iron and copper homeostasis, is associated with trait impulsivity in PwP. Methods. The study measured serum ceruloplasmin and impulsivity using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) in an Australian cohort of 214 PwP. Multivariate general linear models (GLMs) were used to identify whether higher serum ceruloplasmin levels (>75th percentile) were significantly predictive of BIS-11 scores. Results. Serum ceruloplasmin was higher in females with PD (p<0.001) and associated with MDS-UPDRS III, Hoehn and Yahr, and ACE-R scores (p<0.05). When correcting for covariates, higher serum ceruloplasmin concentrations were associated with the 2nd order nonplanning impulsivity and with the 1st order self-control and cognitive complexity impulsivity domains. Conclusions. Higher serum ceruloplasmin levels are independently associated with heightened nonplanning impulsivity in PwP. Thus, serum ceruloplasmin levels may have clinical utility as a marker for heightened impulsivity in PD

THE ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH DATA RELEASES OF THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY: FINAL DATA FROM SDSS-III

Citation: Alam, S., Albareti, F. D., Prieto, C. A., Anders, F., Anderson, S. F., Anderton, T., . . . Zhu, G. T. (2015). THE ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH DATA RELEASES OF THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY: FINAL DATA FROM SDSS-III. Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 219(1), 27. doi:10.1088/0067-0049/219/1/12The third generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) took data from 2008 to 2014 using the original SDSS wide-field imager, the original and an upgraded multi-object fiber-fed optical spectrograph, a new near-infrared high-resolution spectrograph, and a novel optical interferometer. All of the data from SDSS-III are now made public. In particular, this paper describes Data Release 11 (DR11) including all data acquired through 2013 July, and Data Release 12 (DR12) adding data acquired through 2014 July (including all data included in previous data releases), marking the end of SDSS-III observing. Relative to our previous public release (DR10), DR12 adds one million new spectra of galaxies and quasars from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) over an additional 3000 deg(2) of sky, more than triples the number of H-band spectra of stars as part of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), and includes repeated accurate radial velocity measurements of 5500 stars from the Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large-area Survey (MARVELS). The APOGEE outputs now include the measured abundances of 15 different elements for each star. In total, SDSS-III added 5200 deg(2) of ugriz imaging; 155,520 spectra of 138,099 stars as part of the Sloan Exploration of Galactic Understanding and Evolution 2 (SEGUE-2) survey; 2,497,484 BOSS spectra of 1,372,737 galaxies, 294,512 quasars, and 247,216 stars over 9376 deg(2); 618,080 APOGEE spectra of 156,593 stars; and 197,040 MARVELS spectra of 5513 stars. Since its first light in 1998, SDSS has imaged over 1/3 of the Celestial sphere in five bands and obtained over five million astronomical spectra.Additional Authors: Berlind, A. A.;Beutler, F.;Bhardwaj, V.;Bird, J. C.;Bizyaev, D.;Blake, C. H.;Blanton, M. R.;Blomqvist, M.;Bochanski, J. J.;Bolton, A. S.;Bovy, J.;Bradley, A. S.;Brandt, W. N.;Brauer, D. E.;Brinkmann, J.;Brown, P. J.;Brownstein, J. R.;Burden, A.;Burtin, E.;Busca, N. G.;Cai, Z.;Capozzi, D.;Rosell, A. C.;Carr, M. A.;Carrera, R.;Chambers, K. C.;Chaplin, W. J.;Chen, Y. C.;Chiappini, C.;Chojnowski, S. D.;Chuang, C. H.;Clerc, N.;Comparat, J.;Covey, K.;Croft, R. A. C.;Cuesta, A. J.;Cunha, K.;da Costa, L. N.;Da Rio, N.;Davenport, J. R. A.;Dawson, K. S.;De Lee, N.;Delubac, T.;Deshpande, R.;Dhital, S.;Dutra-Ferreira, L.;Dwelly, T.;Ealet, A.;Ebelke, G. L.;Edmondson, E. M.;Eisenstein, D. J.;Ellsworth, T.;Elsworth, Y.;Epstein, C. R.;Eracleous, M.;Escoffier, S.;Esposito, M.;Evans, M. L.;Fan, X. H.;Fernandez-Alvar, E.;Feuillet, D.;Ak, N. F.;Finley, H.;Finoguenov, A.;Flaherty, K.;Fleming, S. W.;Font-Ribera, A.;Foster, J.;Frinchaboy, P. M.;Galbraith-Frew, J. G.;Garcia, R. A.;Garcia-Hernandez, D. A.;Perez, A. E. G.;Gaulme, P.;Ge, J.;Genova-Santos, R.;Georgakakis, A.;Ghezzi, L.;Gillespie, B. A.;Girardi, L.;Goddard, D.;Gontcho, S. G. A.;Hernandez, J. I. G.;Grebel, E. K.;Green, P. J.;Grieb, J. N.;Grieves, N.;Gunn, J. E.;Guo, H.;Harding, P.;Hasselquist, S.;Hawley, S. L.;Hayden, M.;Hearty, F. R.;Hekker, S.;Ho, S.;Hogg, D. W.;Holley-Bockelmann, K.;Holtzman, J. A.;Honscheid, K.;Huber, D.;Huehnerhoff, J.;Ivans, II;Jiang, L. H.;Johnson, J. A.;Kinemuchi, K.;Kirkby, D.;Kitaura, F.;Klaene, M. A.;Knapp, G. R.;Kneib, J. P.;Koenig, X. P.;Lam, C. R.;Lan, T. W.;Lang, D. T.;Laurent, P.;Le Goff, J. M.;Leauthaud, A.;Lee, K. G.;Lee, Y. S.;Licquia, T. C.;Liu, J.;Long, D. C.;Lopez-Corredoira, M.;Lorenzo-Oliveira, D.;Lucatello, S.;Lundgren, B.;Lupton, R. H.;Mack, C. E.;Mahadevan, S.;Maia, M. A. G.;Majewski, S. R.;Malanushenko, E.;Malanushenko, V.;Manchado, A.;Manera, M.;Mao, Q. Q.;Maraston, C.;Marchwinski, R. C.;Margala, D.;Martell, S. L.;Martig, M.;Masters, K. L.;Mathur, S.;McBride, C. K.;McGehee, P. M.;McGreer, I. D.;McMahon, R. G.;Menard, B.;Menzel, M. L.;Merloni, A.;Meszaros, S.;Miller, A. A.;Miralda-Escude, J.;Miyatake, H.;Montero-Dorta, A. D.;More, S.;Morganson, E.;Morice-Atkinson, X.;Morrison, H. L.;Mosser, B.;Muna, D.;Myers, A. D.;Nandra, K.;Newman, J. A.;Neyrinck, M.;Nguyen, D. C.;Nichol, R. C.;Nidever, D. L.;Noterdaeme, P.;Nuza, S. E.;O'Connell, J. E.;O'Connell, R. W.;O'Connell, R.;Ogando, R. L. C.;Olmstead, M. D.;Oravetz, A. E.;Oravetz, D. J.;Osumi, K.;Owen, R.;Padgett, D. L.;Padmanabhan, N.;Paegert, M.;Palanque-Delabrouille, N.;Pan, K. K.;Parejko, J. K.;Paris, I.;Park, C.;Pattarakijwanich, P.;Pellejero-Ibanez, M.;Pepper, J.;Percival, W. J.;Perez-Fournon, I.;Perez-Rafols, I.;Petitjean, P.;Pieri, M. M.;Pinsonneault, M. H.;de Mello, G. F. P.;Prada, F.;Prakash, A.;Price-Whelan, A. M.;Protopapas, P.;Raddick, M. J.;Rahman, M.;Reid, B. A.;Rich, J.;Rix, H. W.;Robin, A. C.;Rockosi, C. M.;Rodrigues, T. S.;Rodriguez-Torres, S.;Roe, N. A.;Ross, A. J.;Ross, N. P.;Rossi, G.;Ruan, J. J.;Rubino-Martin, J. A.;Rykoff, E. S.;Salazar-Albornoz, S.;Salvato, M.;Samushia, L.;Sanchez, A. G.;Santiago, B.;Sayres, C.;Schiavon, R. P.;Schlegel, D. J.;Schmidt, S. J.;Schneider, D. P.;Schultheis, M.;Schwope, A. D.;Scoccola, C. G.;Scott, C.;Sellgren, K.;Seo, H. J.;Serenelli, A.;Shane, N.;Shen, Y.;Shetrone, M.;Shu, Y. P.;Aguirre, V. S.;Sivarani, T.;Skrutskie, M. F.;Slosar, A.;Smith, V. V.;Sobreira, F.;Souto, D.;Stassun, K. G.;Steinmetz, M.;Stello, D.;Strauss, M. A.;Streblyanska, A.;Suzuki, N.;Swanson, M. E. C.;Tan, J. C.;Tayar, J.;Terrien, R. C.;Thakar, A. R.;Thomas, D.;Thomas, N.;Thompson, B. A.;Tinker, J. L.;Tojeiro, R.;Troup, N. W.;Vargas-Magana, M.;Vazquez, J. A.;Verde, L.;Viel, M.;Vogt, N. P.;Wake, D. A.;Wang, J.;Weaver, B. A.;Weinberg, D. H.;Weiner, B. J.;White, M.;Wilson, J. C.;Wisniewski, J. P.;Wood-Vasey, W. M.;Yeche, C.;York, D. G.;Zakamska, N. L.;Zamora, O.;Zasowski, G.;Zehavi, I.;Zhao, G. B.;Zheng, Z.;Zhou, X.;Zhou, Z. M.;Zou, H.;Zhu, G. T